SpiderMan: The Second Chapter The Goblin Arc
by Eltanin
Summary: What if Peter and MJ had a child after the passing of their first child? Would he have the spider-genes. And if so, would be become the next hero?
1. Spider Genes

Chapter One  
Spider Genes  


* * *

He sat in the back corner of the classroom, unnoticed by everyone else who was either taking notes, or sleeping. In his case, he was paying absolutely no attention to the teacher talk about the economy of the United States. With his head propped up by one hand, his other doodled spiders all over the piece of paper, that was supposed to be intended for notes, in front of him. As the teacher droned on and on, he drew a spider dangling from a single thread from the date at the top corner. He smiled to himself, continued his doodling, and every now and then looked up at the teacher to let her think he was paying attention and taking notes.

His name? Terran Parker. A boy who had lived his whole life in the back shadow, ignored, and unnoticed. Strangely enough, he liked it that way. He got to do what he wanted to do without others watching him, and commenting on his every more. He never liked the spotlight, didn't like the 'in crowd' at school - he stayed as far as he could from them. He just plain hated any type of place that was crowded. He felt like everyone watching him all the time. It was never his thing to hang out with people. He didn't really get along well with others. He hated getting attention of any kind, and especially hated it when teachers pointed him out in class. To him, the day was get in and out of school that same way each time: quietly and unnoticed. It was his moral code. One he stood by since the day he was able to walk and talk at the same time.

Beside him sat his best friend, Stephen Reilly. Who, very much unlike Terran, was one of the popular kids who normally _brought_ the attention to himself -- though not on purpose... all of the time. Terran never understood how or why they ever became friends. They were complete opposites, almost anyway. When not in the same class as Terran, Stephen would normally hang around the 'cool' kids. In other words: the basketball jocks. In fact, he was on the school's champion basketball team, even though his personality didn't really fit it. He didn't act like a jock, and his way of doing things and thinking clashed with all the other players'. If it weren't for the fact that he was the team's best player, they would have booted him off long ago. And even Terran knew that, but never understood why his friend stayed. However, he had a feeling that Stephen knew. He seemed to smile too much when with them.

As Terran continued drawing, Stephen leaned his head to the side to get a closer look at what his friend was doing. He had a suspicious feeling no notes were written down on that piece of paper. What he saw didn't surprise him in the sense of the odd drawings, but the fact that he was right. There were not notes. This surprised him only because Terran was such a good student, prized by most of the teachers. It wasn't much like him not to pay attention in class and take notes. He looked back and forth from his friend's face to the piece of paper, waiting for Terran to finally notice him. But once Stephen saw the dazed look in his eyes, he finally gave up and said, "Wake up, Ter. Back to earth."

No reply. If it weren't for the fact that Terran's hand was moving, someone would have thought he was dead.

Stephen raised an eyebrow. "Can we say, _zoned out_?" His next strategy: distraction; wave a hand in front of his eyes. Which was exactly what he did. Usually worked with him, so why not try it on somebody else.

That time he finally got something. A blink.

A few more waves.

A rather slow blink as if Terran had found his sight again after losing it, and a shake of his head, he looked at the hand in front of his face, and using his eyes first, followed by his head, followed the length of the arm to see who it was attached to. Even though it shouldn't have been too hard to guess who, though. He looked right at the smiling face of his friend. His expression stayed as flat as usual.

"Ah, so you are still alive," chuckled Stephen softly. "Thought I lost you for a second there."

"What?" He asked as if he had no clue what happened. He acted like it were a regular day, and nothing different went on around him.

Stephen just shook his head, leaning back in his seat.

This time Terran raised an eyebrow. "What? Did I miss something important?" It was more of a sarcastic comment then one of urgency. It ended with a touch of annoyance from being bothered.

By this time Stephen was laughing so hard he couldn't stop. "Man, I've never seen you so zoned out before," he said between laughs. He imitated Terran's expression, almost laughing out loud, but covering his mouth before he could let it out.

Terran shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever," he sighed, turning back to the paper on his desk. More interesting than the classroom, especially since he wasn't in much of a mood to talk, or even pay attention. Even to his best friend.

Stephen wiped the tears from his eyes, and forced himself to stop laughing before he got caught talking. When he looked back at Terran to see that he wasn't laughing, smiling, or even looking in his general direction, his expression turned serious. _Even for Ter this is too quiet_, he thought to himself. _Even he's not this much of a stickler_. He eyed his friend closely. _Something's on his mind_. Taking a quick glance at the teacher to make sure she was too distracted by talking and giving notes, he turned back to Terran, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Something's wr..."

He didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence before the troubled teen yanked his shoulder out from under his grip. "Just leave me alone."

He happened to say that a little too loud that time. The teacher's head bolted straight to their direction. She was mad. "Excuse me, is their something wrong, boys?"

Stephen smiled sheepishly, and answered quickly, "No, Coach. Nothing."

She looked at them -- mostly Stephen since he was the one looking at and answering her. "Are you sure? May I continue? I don't want to ruin your conversation with mister Parker."

Stephen shook his head, the smile fading away slowly into an embarrassed twitch.

She looked at him for several more, agonizing second, and then continued.

The teen let out a great sigh of relief. "Oph." That's when he saw some of the other students still staring at him. He just glared back until they turned away -- some laughing. Just as he turned his head to say something to Terran, his mouth stayed open, with no sound coming from it. Not only was his head turned away, but the pencil laid broken in half in his hand and on the desk. "Shit," slipped past his lips. He realized just then he lost what might have come of any conversation with Terran. With a final worried looked, he turned away, trying to focus what was left of his attention on the lesson, or at least the front of the room. Although, every few minutes he would look back at his friend out of the corner of his eyes. It annoyed him at how cold Terran had been. Even though they had only been friends since the end of their sophomore year, they almost seemed inseparable. They had never had a fight. They were almost like brothers to everyone who knew them. More to the knowledge of Stephen, though, they were literally brothers, but he couldn't tell Terran the truth. He always thought Peter should do that. Keeping his past from his own son was the worst thing to do... to anyone. Stephen sighed at the thought. "I guess you're better off not knowing," he mumbled more to himself than to his oblivious friend. 

  
After turning away from Stephen, and ignoring the teacher and the rest of the world, Terran moved his attention to the window. He watched the graying clouds roll over the blue sky, and the wind blowing the tree branches back and forth. The swaying put him under a trace as his thoughts clouded his own mind as if _it_ were the sky. _That dream. What was that dream about?_ he thought unconsciously. "Spiders," came out with an exhaled breath.

A sudden streak of lightning followed by a humongous crash of thunder through the air and sky grasped Terran straight out from this thoughts. It was so sudden that it almost made him scream out. It felt like someone grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him against a concrete wall. He closed his eyes, and rubbed a spot over his left eye. He hissed in pain. "Damn," he mumbled, shaking his head.

Opening his eyes again after his heart slowed, and the pain eased, he looked back out the window. Lightning and thunder were never good signs, especially for those who had to walk home from school. He grimaced when he saw droplets of rain falling from the sky lightly, turning almost into a down pour seconds later. "Great, just great," he sighed in annoyance, throwing one hand into the air. It was only second period. "Just what I needed today." More agony added on to his already troubled though full day. 

  
The next few classes before the lunch break went just as slow as the first, but perhaps more painfully agonizing than the first. Mostly for Stephen, though. Terran went on with his back still to him, ignoring him from the mornings events. The solemn look never wavering once. There was no sign of Terran letting out what was wrong. But instead of bugging him, Stephen let him be. He thought it best anyway. There was never any point in ever trying to get Terran to do anything. He had his mind set to do what he wanted. He had a strong will for a teenager, especially for being so withdrawn most of the time.

With the beginning of each class, Terran would take the back seat, not looking at anyone as he did so. In fact, it was the last thing on his mind. He paid no attention to any of the lessons, either. He gave it all to the rainy day outside, or the doodled on paper from his economics class. He still hoped, though, that the rain would let up, but it never did once.

"I should've known this was not going to be a good day for me," he grumbled to himself as he sketched a figure climbing up the margin of the paper. It had a very noticeable spider like quality to it, but to him it was just another drawing. Then again, he was drawing out his own thoughts. "Spider... spider... spider like, spider grace, spideresque." Those words flew around and around his mind, followed by images of a spider like figure, and something green following it. "Green... why was it green," he asked no one in particular - not as if anyone would even have the answer to his question if he did ask someone. "Green. It was green, and laughing... Evil..."

Suddenly, he ripped himself out from his thoughts, mentally slapping himself. "Evil, green thing laughing at you. You're kidding yourself, Terran," he laughed stupidly to himself. "You've let your imagination get the best of you." He turned away from the window to the front of the class. "Maybe Stephen was right." He shook his head again in retrospect of the way he acted before then. "Spiders, and evil green people... What a joke." He smiled to himself, taking one last look out the window at the rain, and then turned his attention to the teacher at last.

Just as he turned away, a gigantic streak of lightning struck through the sky, lighting everything around it, and illuminating the silhouette of a strange figure floating on a building. One that disappeared as quickly as the lightning had struck. Strangely, an odd, long stream of smoke, wafted in the air where the figure had been, and where it had gone deeper into the city. 

  
At the end of the day, Terran found Stephen at his locker, a grim expression on his face. He knew it was his fault. Then again, letting such a stupid dream get to him was even worse. So he decided to walk over and say something. Something to break the tension he created. Normally, he would let things like this go when he was mad, but he had an odd sense not to do that this time. He leaned on the locker door next to Stephen's open one, and said, "Hey." Nothing too dramatic.

Stephen didn't turn his head. He didn't actually have to because he knew Terran was coming over. Instead, he smiled, and said sarcastically, "Took you long enough." He looked up to see a pathetic attempt at a smile on his friend's face, and shook his head, putting a hand on Terran's shoulder. "How many times do I have to tell you that there's no point in getting mad at people? It's just a waste of time."

"Not enough," Terran smiled softly back.

After shutting the door to his locker, and throwing his book bag over his shoulder, he shoved his hands in his pockets, and the two started walking. "You know what, Ter, you think too much," Stephen started nonchalantly. "It shows too much on your face." He gave him a slightly serious look, trying to tell him he knew something was wrong. "You make it too obvious."

"Whatever," answered Terran in his normally monotonic voice.

Stephen hit himself in the forehead. "Geez, is that the only way you know how to answer someone?... No, wait, don't even bother answering that one." He waved his hand in front of his face as if he was moving the question out of the way. "I already know what your answer will be."

Terran didn't even bother replying in any way. He was too use to the conversations like these with his only friend. It was something that started the first day they met, and continued to that very day. Now he just got an inward laugh about it. If it was up to Stephen, he would just go on and on about how he never gave anyone a real answer, because every time his answer would be, "Whatever."

This time, however, not only did he not reply, but even Stephen didn't. Which was rather strange. Instead, his usual happy expression turned even more serious than before. His mouth went flat line, and his eyes were directed straight ahead. He made no attempt to make eye contact.

Terran looked away uneasily. _He still remembers this morning_, he thought. The grip on his book ba strap tightened in anticipation of the forth coming question. He hated such long, uncomfortable silences. Suddenly, his head instantly bolted up to look at Stephen when he started talking.

A slight smile was back, not a very sturdy one, but one was there. "I shouldn't let it worry me, Ter. I'm sure what ever's bugging you, you'll get over it soon enough." A very peculiar laugh came out of his mouth that almost made Terran jump back.

Instead, he nonchalantly replied with, "Yeah, sure," still looking away. Why was he being so uneasy about it? He's been this way before, and has gotten over whatever the problem was. Why was this time any different? Unlike the other times, his dream were never involved. And as much bull shit he thought that were, something still told him, in the back of his mind, that just maybe they weren't all bs. There was a truth somewhere in them. Whatever it was, was tearing his thoughts to pieces. "I hope so," he added quietly to himself.

As they walked out of the school, ready to take their usual course home, Stephen stopped, a look of pain on his face. "Crap, I forgot I had to stay after today." He ignored Terran's reply of a raised eyebrow, and told him what happened. "Ms. Greenwald wants to talk to me because of my grades. Even I think they're fine, she has a problem with them." He looked at his watch. "Sorry, Ter. Listen, I'll call you later. See ya, man." He gave Terran an understanding pat on the shoulder as if he knew what was wrong, gave him a look that meant the same thing, and then went running back into the school. Leaving Terran by himself, watching him go.

He sighed, and shrugged his shoulder's. "Yeah, later." With another short look at Stephen, he turned back around, grimaced at the rain, and walked out, throwing the hood of his shirt over his head. 

* * *

As Terran walked down the street, he kept his head down, and watched the pavement below pass under his feet. He ignored the wet sensation the went down his back, and the people who he bumped into. Of course, bumping into people was a current event on all streets of New York City. Then again, it was late afternoon, and raining, so most people were trying their best to stay inside. Terran was one of the unfortunates who had to walk, though. But he didn't care. It was something he did often during the football season when Stephen had to stay after. However, he had a strange feeling that this time it wasn't going to be as normal a walk as he was used to, but he ignored it. He blamed his dream for screwing with his head.

Every now and then he would find a fairly large puddle in his way, but instead of walking around it -- like everyone else did -- he walked through it. No sense in walking into people, and making an even bigger mess. Besides, it was only water.

He turned a corner onto a side street where he knew not many people would be, and knew it to be a quicker way to get to his house. He kicked a rock ahead of him, and listened to it splash in a few puddles. He expected to head nothing but the rain when it stopped, but what he heard almost made him stop and look back. It was footsteps. Someone was following him. They seemed to be going a little too fast to belong to just any random person who turned the corner. Besides that, there was no one else around him.

"Fuck," cursed as he continued walking. Stopping or quickening his pace would alert his follower, and he didn't want to do that... right away. The best thing to do - that he could think of -- was to stay at normal pace, but listening to the footsteps behind at the same time. They were fast, but not alarmingly so. He tightened his grip on the strap of his book bag in case he had to start running or to even hit whoever was after him.

He turned his head just enough to see a dark figure at least thirty yards away, and another just walking around the corner. He felt danger radiating off of both people. "How predictable. One can never beat a person senseless by them self without help." He snickered to himself at a thought back to all the comic books he had ever read. That's also when he quickened his pace just a little more. His followers did the same.

He spotted a street ahead to his left, and quickly cut across the the street his was on, and went down that one. He knew he wasn't going to lose them but he knew he would catch them off guard, which was exactly what happened. He heard the first say something and walk even faster, the second one finally catching up to him.

_Their gonna split_, Terran thought to himself. With a quick turn of his head he saw he was right, but what he didn't predict was that they also started running after him. That caught him by surprise instantly, and he jumped into action, and started running himself. "This just adds on to my already shitty day," he said between breaths as he sped down that street with his two chasers right behind him.

He heard a trash can fall over, and someone curse out after several minutes of running. That bought him some time. At least one thing stayed on his side: the rain. Then again, he was surprised he hadn't slipped, yet. He thought too soon, though. He didn't see the small depression in the pavement, and his foot got stuck, sending him flying into the ground face first. His arms shot out instinctively in front of him and he caught himself just before his face made a permanent mark in the side walk.

Their footsteps were getting closer now.

"Shit," he blurted out, forcing himself up, tearing his pants, and scrapping the palms of both hands. That's when he heard it, the laughter from his dream. That mad laughter. His eyes went wide, but he shook his head forcefully to get the thoughts out of his mind. "Th... this is im... impossible," he stuttered.

"Try again, my little spider," a sickeningly, insane voice called out to him.

"What?" He stopped, and looked all around him only to see an abandoned street and rain, but then his chasers came back into view. "Fuck, not now." For that second, he put the voice behind him and continued running. That cost him too many precious moments. It sent his thoughts in a flurry of what he should do next. He lost all sense of calmness and concentration that was leading him to think straight, so he didn't really know what to think. It was all empty street ahead of him, and that's the only thing his brain was comprehending.

The footsteps behind were getting closer and closer with each passing second, along with shouts from the two men following him. But there seemed to be an extra voice in the mix, but the couldn't have been possible. There was only two of them!

"That voice couldn't have been the same. No way," Terran argued to himself. "It was all a dream, just a dream." He turned his head again to see how far back the two were. He found he made a mistake in doing so because they were way too close for comfort. And as far as he knew, the street he was on didn't connect to any of the main streets in the city. There were just side alleyways here and there, most ending in a dead end, and he was sure he wasn't going to be lucky enough to choose one that would bring him to another street that would bring him back to civilization. "Why me?" It was time for a guessing game now. Maybe fate wouldn't be so cruel this time around in his life.

One more look told him that any little thing that stalled him would kill any chance of freedom. He mentally slapped himself for walking down that street. "Too late now, Ter," he reminded himself.

With noticing three alleyways ahead, it was his time to pick which to go down. Something in the back of his mind told him to go down the center one. And since he already past the first, and had only a several feet to go, with a quick turn on his heels he went down the second alleyway. For a split second he thought he was home free. With a second glance he saw a dead end. "Shit." He slammed a fist against the brick wall, and turned around to see the two men at the only exit. He mumbled to himself, "Remind me never to listen to that little voice in the back of my head."

He heard the two laugh. "You gave us a good chase back there, kid. But it ends here. The boss will be happy," the first told him.

_Jump._

His body went numb.

Then the second one spoke. "Yeah, and we won't hafta worry about lookin' for ya anymore."

_Jump!_

Terran's eyes went from side to side, and he thought to himself, _I must be going nuts. First the dreams, then the laughing, and now getting chased and cornered_. He wondered is he should have even bothered getting out of bed that morning.

The first gave a look to the second. "Let's get him while he's stuck, Joe. Gobie's gonna be mad if we don't hurry while we got him."

The second chuckled in reply, and cracked his fingers. "Fine by me, Ralph." They both laughed and then started walking towards him.

Terran slid his bag down his arm ready to attack when they got close enough. He decided he wasn't going down without a fight. It was the least he could do anyway. He knew he wasn't going to die, but for some reason he knew he wasn't going to see the light of day if he didn't even try to fight back.

_Jump!_

The voice again. He started to look worried then. His back against the wall, his only way out blocked, and the only thing that seemed to come to his mind was to jump? What was he going to do? One thing he knew, he wasn't going to listen to that subconscious thought.

"Aw, look at the poor Kid. He looks like he's gonna pee in his pants," Ralph joked.

Joe laughed harder after that, making Terran's temper fly up several notches. His hands curled into fists.

Ralph spoke again. "I think the boss is goin' soft on us. Givin' us stuff like this to do." He looked at his buddy. "Lets end this now."

The second's reply was a nod, and said, "How much do you think we'll get for him?"

"Good question, maybe a lot since Gobie's really interested in him. Always was with the other one."

With no hesitation after that last thought, they jumped in to a run towards the teen.

On cue, that voice came back louder than ever. _JUMP!_

Terran grimaced, but then bent down, only to jump back up seconds later. And did he jump, too. Not only did he surprise himself, but his attackers, too. "What the...? How did I?" For a split second he felt as if he was floating, that was, until he started to fall back down to the ground. But it wasn't the ground he landed on, but the two men's shoulders. By the time he landed, all fear -- or most of it -- was gone. The surprise on their faces was enough of a rush for him.

The two stared up at him with wide eyes. "What the hell?!" Ralph whimpered.

All thoughts were running through Terran's head now. However, the one main one was... _Why does this feel so natural?_

Suddenly, without him even realizing it, the two were out of their dazes, and grabbed him by the ankles. "Gotcha now, kid," Joe said with a smile on his face. A smile full of malice.

Ralph just smirked as he pulled something out of his jacket picket.

_Shit, these guys were more serious than I thought_, Terran thought to himself. Jumping was not an option this time around. For regular looking thieves, they were pretty strong, especially the one named Joe. Of course, that meant that Ralph was the weaker one - maybe. A second's planning went through his head. The first had him held by one hand, the second by two, os that meant he had a better chance knocking his right leg free from the first's grip. He smiled, did he have a chance?

Just as Ralph pulled out a gun from his jacket, he stopped when he felt a tapping on the top of his head. "What...?" He looked up to meet Terran's fist, knocking him off his feet, and letting go of the teen's right leg.

"Chance!" Terran yelled out, bringing his free leg up, and kneeing the other in the head. He was so surprised at how smooth and natural the movements were. It was almost as if a second nature had taken over. Was this really happening? With both men down, and both legs free, he ran, but not toward the opening to the alleyway. No, he ran to the wall. The images from his dream were racing through his mind, taking over his every thought. Next thing he knew he was half way up the side of the brick building looking down at the two dumbfound thugs. Of course, that's when he finally got back into a conscious state of mind, and actually realized he was crawling up the wall. "Whoa..."

Just then, he instinctively jumped to a pipe next to him, holding on by one hand and his legs. As he jumped, he heard a gun go off, and saw the bullet hit where he had just been a moment before. That's when the one major thought and image from his dreams smacked him on the forehead. "Spider..." Without any hesitation, or look down, he crawled up the rest of the way, falling to his knees when he made it to the buildings roof. He looked down at his hands, asking, "What is happening to me?" He closed his eyes, sighing deeply. Then the answer came to him. It was in front of him the entire time. "Mom and dad..." He forced himself up to his feet. "They've kept too much from me." With a look around every side of the building making sure the thugs were gone, he jumped back down to the ground, and walked home. 

  
Peter and Mary Jane sat at the kitchen table looking at each other with worried looks. It was never like their son to not be home so later after school. Even when he was with Stephen. "Maybe he stayed after, and forgot to call," Peter suggested. Or said to try to give some hope to Mary Jane.

"Then why do I have a bad feeling something horrible happened?" Mary Jane scowled.

Peter squeezed her hand, giving her a smile. "Because you..." His voice trailed off when the front door's lock was undone. The two instantly jumped to their feet, and ran to the door.

It opened before they got there, and they both stopped in mid-step. Terran stood before them soaking wet in ripped jeans, and a face that was all scratched up.

Mary Jane took a step forward. "Terran? Terran, what's wrong, baby?"

Peter gave his son an odd look.

He scowled at the two, and then said, "I want you to tell me everything."

"What?" they asked in unison.

Terran said nothing else, but brought his arm up, bent his ring and middle fingers down to his wrist, and then knocked his wrist back. A string of webbing shot out from the white splotch on his wrist, hitting a cup on the table, and smashing it into the wall.

Mary Jane's eyes went wide as she covered her mouth with both hands. While Peter's face turned serious, and he just stared at his son. The moment he hoped would never happen, finally was. 

* * *

Chapter Two: A Spider's Past

* * *

This chapter was written and typed to _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers_ soundtrack, and 3 Doors Down _Away From the Sun_ cd. 

  



	2. A Spider's Past

Chapter Two  
A Spider's Past  


* * *

"I want to know everything," Terran said again this time more coldly. He stared his father right in the eyes, challenging him. His arm was still out, and his wrist knocked back. Broken glass lay all over the dinning room floor, and webbing stayed glued to the wall, splattered like play dough.

Mary Jane looked away, her eyes shaking as she glanced from from Peter to their son. _Could this be happening_, she thought to herself. _This wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to grow up like a normal boy._ "Oh, Peter." She fell down to the floor.

Peter put a hand around his son's wrist. "Terran..."

Terran pulled his hand away instantly from the touch. "No. There's no getting around this one, dad." He shook his head. "No more excuses. I'm tired of them. You've kept this from me for far too long."

Peter sighed, turning his head away in shame. "I know." He looked up, and into is son's deep brown eyes. "I know, Terran."

"If you knew, then why didn't you ever tell me? Is this so fucking important that you couldn't tell me? I'm your son. I'm your own freakin' flesh and blood." Terran threw his arms up in rage. "In more ways than one. What the hell is this?" By that last blast of words he was in his father's face.

Peter looked him straight in the eyes. They looked darker than usual. He scowled. "What do you want from me? Do you want me to tell you how God damned stupid I was? Tell me, what?"

"What?" he asked incredulously. "That's a stupid question. How 'bout this one." He paused, looking down at his mother, and then back to his father. 'I want to know everything from the beginning. Every detail." He sighed sadly next, "I'm tired of being lied to."

Peter shook his head, and rubbed the side of his head. He could almost laugh. "We should've known this was bound to happen, MJ." He turned away from the two of them. "Terran, it wasn't easy. None of it was."

"Easy?!" Terran took a step back, and curled his hands into fists. "Fuck that! I could just imagine..."

He was suddenly cut off by Peter jumping at him, and grabbing him by the collar. "Excuse me!"

Terran almost jumped back at the touch, at the quickness, and strength of his father's grip. It was unnatural, inhuman... he was...

"Peter!" Mary Jane yelled out, but she was ignored. It was almost as if she was cut out of the picture. She had no control.

"No, Terran, you _can't_ imagine how fucked up it was for me! You can't even try to imagine how hard my life was! For Christ sakes, I didn't even have a fucking life!" Peter lost it. "I lost the only father I ever knew, I almost lost my aunt, and your mother." Terran could see the tears forming at the corners of his father's eyes. "I've lost so may friends and loved ones I lost count." He let Terran's shirt go, and dropped his arms to his sides. "Now, you tell me why I would keep this from you, son. You tell me why I wouldn't tell you about how I was Spider-Man. How I was beaten to ground dozens of times throughout out my lifetime, and almost died, millions of times. How I was a superhuman, and had to hide it from every single person I loved, but _still_ couldn't do anything about it when something happened to them. I couldn't tell them it was me. Not in a millennia. I just had to keep on fighting until it was over... but it never ended. Never. Now, you answer me that."

Terran stayed silent, but kept eye contact. He couldn't back down now, even if this new found rage was coming from his father about his past. Something that he never told Terran once in his life. Never a hint, nothing.

Peter laughed. "I thought so."

Before he could continue, though, Terran said something, although it was more to himself then his father. "Spider-Man." He closed his eyes. "My own father was Spider-Man." He opened them again to look at Peter. "You were the guy I always looked up to for as long as I can remember." He shook his head. Suddenly, he slammed a fist into the wall - literally. "Fuck it!" Looking down to the floor, he turned, leaned his back against the wall, and slid to the ground.

Peter took a seat by the window, and putting his elbows on his knees, leaned his forehead on the palms of his hands. He started a story, he never ever wanted to tell his son, but he couldn't protect Terran from something he couldn't stop now. "Most people know the story of Spider-Man."

Terran's head moved up in his father's direction, and he just stared at him. Every and all emotion was running their course throughout his mind. He was finally getting what he wanted, but he wasn't sure if he should have been happy, sad, or angry. What he did know, though, was that it was hard. Very Hard.

Peter continued, ignoring any and all distractions. Even his own wife's crying. "Except they only knew about the hero. The guy who risked his life to save the lives of others. Who would go out of his way to help people, and get rid of the evil that plagued the shadows." He paused in retrospect. "Either that, or they thought it was all my fault, and wanted Spider-Man dead. Things were fine before Spider-Man came into the picture. They probably just didn't see what was there before I came in. They're all blind fools. All of them." He took a deep breath. "The one thing none of them ever saw was the man behind the mask. They never thought about him. Never thought what might be happening to him when fighting, when trapped somewhere, when trying his hardest to be loved by all, but never could be because somewhere out there, there was always a fool trying to kill him. Trying to find out who Spider-Man really was to kill him, and finally rid the world of the man. There was never a time after that where there was no Spider-Man, or some form of him.

"And you know what, though, I didn't care at first. I knew I was doing good. I knew I was helping them, but good things don't last long. I never knew there were so many psychos in the world who wanted me dead, because all what I was trying to do was protect everyone." He leaned back, and looked out the window. Everything was so calm out there, compared to his world. He closed his eyes. "I never would imagine the things that followed after I became Spider-Man. The Green Goblin, the Vulture, Venom, Doc Ock, Carnage. There was so many of them. After a while it became so much difficult than before to keep my identity a secret. Aunt May I think was hurt the most, and you mother..." Peter looked to his wife with sad eyes. She was still in the same spot, but she had her eyes covered by one of her hands, and was shaking her head. He put a hand on her shoulder. She still didn't move. "Almost died several times, but she always came back to me. She was always there for Spider-Man, for me."

Terran's eyes went wide. "What? How long?" He didn't have to finish the sentence for his father to answer it.

"Probably longer than I think," Peter laughed sadly. "But because of that, it brought more pain. That's why, Terran. That's why." He looked back to his son. "I couldn't, and didn't want to see you go through the same things as I went through at your age."

Terran let it all soak through his head It was hard to take it in. Mostly because all what he could think of was excuses. It was all just an excuse. He opened his mouth, and said, "What about the other> The Scarlet Spider, the other Spider-Man? I know enough that you weren't the only one." He laughed to himself. "Then again, I never knew it was you. Spider-Man was always the cool super hero." He said that last sentence more to himself than to his parents.

Peter looked to Mary Jane at that question. He knew she'd be surprised by that one, just as he had been, and he also knew that she wouldn't want Terran to know the answer. "Peter, not this, no."

Peter shook his head, and sighed deeply. "I think we've already kept too much from him already, MJ." Looking back at his son, he continued with the answer. "I know there's one thing you'd never have guessed. There was more than just one of me out there back then, and... now." He looked down at his hands as a distraction from looking at his son's reaction.

Terran's heart stopped, along with the rest of his body. "Wh... what? What do you mean by that?" His skin went pale, and his body went cold. Even he didn't like the sound of that. Was he regretting?

"Have you heard of the man, Ben Reilly?" Terran just slightly nodded his head. Peter paused again. _To tell him this? It'll kill him, but he has to know._ "He was my clone. _He_ was the Scarlet Spider, and it was _he_ who took my place as Spider-Man when I left. When I couldn't handle it anymore. When I wanted a normal life." On a second thought, he added. "He was a great man, and I'm sure his..." He couldn't continue the thought it was too hard on him to.

Terran's head was spinning in circles by this time, and he only took in half of what was said to him. The name Reilly went spinning round and round through his head. _Reilly... Reilly..._ His eyes went wide suddenly, and he looked up at his father, shaking his head.

Peter knew what his son was thinking. Knew the conclusion to his son's thoughts. "If I'm correct with what you were just thinking, and I'm sure I am. Yes, Terran, Stephen is what and who you think he is. He is a clone of Ben Reilly."

If he wasn't already on the floor, he would have fallen at that statement. "All this time... how long was it? Since the end of our sophomore year in high school?" Terran's voice and whole body was shaking. He couldn't believe it. He looked down at his hands. "Even my only friend has been keeping secrets from me." He laughed softly in defeat. "Friend? I should call him my brother. I guess there's no one in this world I can trust."

"Oh, Terran," Mary Jane cried out weakly. She looked up at Peter, but before she could say anything else, they made eye contact. She saw what he wanted to say next. She shook her head sternly, and gave him a cold look. She moved her lips, but no sound came out. It was something she didn't want her son to hear, but knew that Peter would understand completely. _Not him_.

Peter sighed. He was at a lost. She was right, though. Telling Terran there was another? He couldn't risk it. He looked up when he heard his son's voice.

"You know, even though no one ever told me until now. Somehow, somehow I always seemed to know the truth. There was something there in the back of my head telling me, but I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that my parents would keep something like this from me." He looked up at his parents. Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks. "It's hard." He stood, and turned his back to them. "I'm going for a walk. I'll be back..." He paused to think. "Whenever."

Peter and Mary Jane didn't stop him. They both thought he needed some time alone. Besides that, they had matters to discuss. Something they couldn't let their son hear. So they watched as the door shut behind him and Terran walk by the window with his head down, and his hands shoved into his pockets.

That's when Peter turned to his wife. "MJ, what are we supposed to do? We can't keep him a secret from Terran forever. They're brothers. We..."

She quickly interrupted him, and snapped coldly, "No, Peter, not _we_. _You_. I don't want Terran to know... ever. He's not apart of this family, nor ever will be. He's another Goblin, Peter. Why would you even dare think of him at a time like this?" At the word _Goblin_, she stood, and stared down at her husband. "He was an insane, and sick _thing_. Anything associated with him should be treated the same way he treated everything else. Even..."

Peter couldn't listen anymore to her hate filled words, and pushed himself up, grabbing Mary Jane by the shoulders.

His speed, and his grip reminded her just who her husband was. It almost frightened her how quickly he could go from the gentlest of men, to a super human who could squash anyone flat in a second. Even the look in his eyes changed to that of anger.

"Don't talk about him like that," he threatened, and then let her go, turning away. "I don't care how low you think he is, there is always a chance he is the son that we lost so long ago." His tone chilled her to the bone. "He could be Terran's older brother. Why can't you even think about that, Mary Jane."

She scowled right back at him. "Yes I can, Peter. I just think you're being delusional, and you can't come to the truth that our child is dead."

He had to keep himself from hitting her with that last comment. _She never could see how hard that was on me._ "You're wrong, MJ. Don't you see?"

Mary Jane turned her eyes away, breaking any attempt of eye contact with Peter. "No, Peter, don't _you_ see? Terran's so fragile now, especially after today. Telling him about... that... that Goblin creation would destroy what's left of him." She sighed, putting her hand in his. "_We_ decided this a long time ago, Peter. That _thing_ isn't to come in contact with our son. Don't tell him. That way, he'll never have to be _confused_. Our first child died, no matter who comes begging at the door saying any different. If we're lucky, Terran _won't_ have the inclination to go running around in a spandex costume trying to be hero." She look at him with sad eyes, and squeezed his hand, let go, and then turned to walked away.

When she was out of hearing distance, Peter sighed, and looked up into the sky. "Troll already knows about Terran's existence, MJ. He knows he has a bother, even if he doesn't know anything about him." 

* * *

The next day at school, Terran found himself walking through the halls with his head down, and paying little attention to little else, but the floor. After that conversation between he and his father, his mind had been wandering. Finding out after seventeen years that his father was the true Spider-Man was hard to believe, but he knew it to be true. Especially after what happened in the alley. But the one thing really on his mind was the clone: Ben Reilly, and the other. After a year and a half of being best friends, and having such a truthful friendship, he found out his 'best friend' wasn't being so truthful. Or in better words that came to him about Stephen: his brother. Unconsciously, both of his hands curled into fists.  
The only thing keeping him as calm as he was the fact that the hallways were empty. Although it cost him missing his first period class, and after him paying little to no attention the day before in class, it wasn't like he was missing anything important. So he had no idea why he was even walking to the class anyway. That's when he stopped, and looked up to see the next door leading to the class. If he could have slouched more he would have, but instead sighed solemnly, and kept on walking. He stopped again when he reached the door. Fifteen minutes left, he wouldn't get in that much trouble walking in that late. Just as his hand was about to go around the door knob, though, his arm fell back to his side. "Shit," he mumbled to himself, shaking his head. "No way." He sighed, and then walked right past the door.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Stephen sitting in the back taking glances at the door. Unfortunately, he saw him just as he reached the door and stop. It was what really made Terran walk away. He didn't want to his friend... brother... whatever he was. As much as he wanted to confront him, he didn't want to. At the moment he was still confused of what to think of anything. He wanted to avoid any contact with Stephen as much as possible, even though he knew it was an impossible task. They were in mostly all of the same classes.

Dragging himself down the hallway, he thought aloud, "Why'd l even bother going to school?" Looking around at the empty hallway and lockers, he laughed softly to himself. "Bad habit."

Suddenly, a door opened and closed behind him. He stopped in mid-step, and his head stood still, his eyes went wide. He knew exactly who it was before he looked shortly over his shoulder. He grimaced, and turned his head away. "Great, the one thing I didn't want to get into today," he mumbled to himself in aggravation. He brought a fist up, and squeezed it. He heard Stephen's footsteps coming.

"Terran?"

He heard the hesitation in his voice, but said nothing and did nothing in response. He wanted to just walk away, but his feet wouldn't listen to his brain.

"Terran?" Stephen raised an eyebrow at his rather quiet friend. "Hello, what's up? Do you hear me? Are you even listening?" He walked closer. _Is he shaking?_ "You ok, Ter?"

Without any warning, just as Stephen was only a few steps away, Terran slammed his fist against a locker, bending it almost in half. He was stunned for about a half a second before he turned to look straight at the other teen. Who happened to have a very stunned look on his own face. "Surprised? You shouldn't be," Terran said, his tone full of anger. He looked down at the hand he hit the locker with. It didn't even look red. It didn't even look like he hit anything with it. "I'm sure you've known for awhile." He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as he took a couple of steps closer to Stephen. "In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if you could do the same." He stopped when he was only an arms length away.

Stephen gave him a worried look, and swallowed hard. He started to bring his arms up, and said, "I think we should talk, Ter."

Terran tilted his head down slightly, and glared at him. The expression on his face turned into an instant scowl.

Stephen didn't like the look he saw. _Peter, happy ya finally told him, but this was not the reaction I was hoping for_. The next thing he knew, without any warning, Terran had grabbed him, and punched him square in the face. He heard something crack. "What the hell?!" His hands went up, and blocked the second blow.

Terran then grabbed him by the collar with both hands. All his energy was surging through him. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?" He started to lift him off the ground, but Stephen's arms shot up, and knocked Terran's grip from his shirt.

Stephen jumped back swiftly, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "You know, before you try anything else, you should think about who you're fighting against," he warned, ready to block an attack if one should come.

Terran laughed, and shook his head. "No, I know exactly who you are." He paused, and stared at his father's clone. "A fake."  
Stephen's heart stopped at that one, and he just looked at Terran in complete surprise. _How?_ He furrowed his brows from emotional pain. "Terran.."

He was shot down instantly. "No, Stephen, don't even. It hurts, do you have any fucking idea how much it hurts?" He started walking closer to him, and quickly grabbed him before he could avoid it. However, instead he and Stephen gabbed one another's wrists. Terran almost laughed out loud, but kept the smile inside. Stephen was right about one thing, he should have thought about who he was up against. But at the moment, he was too angry to worry about it. "To have something like that being kept from me for all my life, and then finding out that the _one_ person I thought I could trust turns out to be exactly like them is the worst feeling in the world." He stared right into his eyes, and tightened his grip. "You're a fucking asshole." He let go, ripped his hand out from Stephen's grip, and pushed him away.

"What the fuck, Terran?" Stephen spat out. "What do you expect from me? What? How do you think _I_ felt?"

Terran's thoughts suddenly stopped at that first question. He shook his head, a solemn expression on his face. "You know, my dad asked me that same question."

Stephen was taken aback at that statement, and was about to reply, but Terran kept on going.

"But do you know what my answer to that is now?" Trust." At that word, the bell rang, and the classes were let out, surrounding the two teens who just stared at each other. But not for long. Terran broke away by putting his head down, and walking past Stephen, hitting his shoulder against him in the process.

Stephen just stood there staring at the empty space where his friend had just been. A hurt look in his eyes, and on his face. At that moment he felt very alone. He was suddenly taken out of his daze by a hand coming down on his shoulder, and someone saying his name. He blinked twice, shook his head, and looked to his left to see a tall, red head. "Oh, Slash." He quickly shrugged his shoulders, and grinned to get back into his usual carefree persona. "Hey, man."

Slash raised an eyebrow. "You ok, Reilly, you looked a little zoned out before."

"Ah, yeah, fine," Stephen said as if what had just happened in the hallway between Terran and him had never happened. He quickly added, "Let me just grab my stuff, and we'll get to class." He didn't wait for a reply, and disappeared into the crowd, to the classroom, and back out again with his book bag in hand.

Slash just shook his head with a smile on his face. "I wonder about you sometimes. Did you know that?"

Stephen shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever. I get that all that time," he joked as they started walking. He took a quick glance over his shoulder at the locker Terran had smashed in, a seconds moment of worry on his face. _This is not good?,_ he thought. 

* * *

When Terran walked away from Stephen, he didn't actually have a destination he was reaching for. That, and his class was in the opposite direction, but he didn't care. Besides, the last person he wanted to see, again, was in his next class. He couldn't control himself before, he had doubts that he would be able to do it a second time. Especially because Stephen wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut. He had chronic loud mouth, and at the moment Terran wasn't going to be able to take it.

The next thing he knew, though, as he walked past all the class rooms and offices, was that he found himself back in the lobby walking out of the school. He didn't even bother looking back, and just continued walking. _What a waste of time,_, he thought to himself. "I knew this was going to happen," he sighed, shaking his head solemnly. He looked down, and kicked a rock that was in front of his foot. With his eyes, he watched as it bounced along the sidewalk, ending it's trail by falling into a drain in the road. He laughed softly to himself, and said, "Turning out to be like my life." He shoved his hands in his pockets, and continued walking, trying not to think of what had happened between he and Stephen. It almost hurt that he was losing the only friend that he had ever had.

As he walked past a dark alley, his ear twitched, and his head snapped up. He sensed something. He stopped dead in his tracks, turned on his heels, and look straight a head of him. Something was there... watching him. When he didn't hear or see anything he was ready to turn back around, and keep on going, but a nagging sensation in the back of his head wouldn't go away. "Spider sense," he chuckled softly. Of course, that wasn't the only reason he didn't leave. Curiosity was getting the best of him. Glancing to his left and right quickly, he walked into the dark alley. "Man, I can't believe I'm doing this."

Suddenly, he heard something move above him. His ears perked up, and he tilted his head up to see what it was. He saw something jumping back and forth from wall to wall, and whatever it was, was moving fast.

He reflexively bent down, and jumped up, grabbing onto the wall, and climbing up, jumping from one window sill to the next to go faster. When he finally reached the top, and crawled onto the roof, whatever it was, was gone. Not a trace of anything in any direction that would tell him where it went. Even his spider sense had calmed down. He furrowed his brows. "What was that?"

He didn't get much of a chance to think about it, though. Something else set off his spider sense, and told him to duck... quickly. In a matter of seconds, he bent low as something went flying over his head at the same time. Something that was sharp, too. He looked up to see whatever it was had something on top of it. Something that had a horrible cackle. One that he recognized instantly. His eyes went wide. "Shit. The Green Goblin? No way." Again, he had to chance to think, or even take in what he was seeing. The thin came speeding back around straight at him.

"Haha! Hello again, Spider!" the Green Goblin cackled out in a mangled voice.

The first thing that came to Terran's mind was to jump. What was what he did. However, he didn't expect to land on top of the glider as well. He stared straight into the Goblin's ugly, yellow eyes.

"Glad of you to join me, Spider. You make life so much easier for me to kill you." His voice seemed to get more mangled and sardonic with each word that come out of his mouth. He was mad.

_Now I know what dad went through_, he thought to himself with a slight smile.

Suddenly, the Green Goblin grabbed him by the neck, and smiled maniacally at Terran. "Good-bye, Spider!"

Just as he was about to throw him over the edge of the glider, Terran turned things around, and grinned right back. "I don't think so." As if he had been Spider-Man all of his life, his legs shot up, and kicked the Goblin dead center in his stomach. He dropped Terran instantly on impact. The teen landed perfectly on his feet. "Not happening, ugly." With a triumphant smile, he stood straight up, and glared down at the Green Goblin who had an expression of surprise all over his face.

"You weren't supposed to..."

He was cut off by Terran's sudden action. The teen dived backwards off of the front of the glider, falling head towards that streets below. 'Some other time," Terran said, smiling.

The Goblin's eyes went wide, and then he threw his head back cackling. "Kill yourself for me, Spider!"

However, just as he did that, Terran's arm went out, he bent his fingers in, and a line of webbing flew out from his wrist, the end sticking around a flag pole. His body came out of its backward dive, and he swung back up like a trained spider as he spun once around the pole, letting go of his end of the web-line, and jumped into the air, letting out another ling. The second one attached itself around the top of a ladder, and Terran swung himself up with such a force that he was able to let go sooner than he thought, and he flew up gracefully, landing with ease on his feet at the top of a building. Standing straight up, he watched as the Green Goblin flew away, a trail of smoke behind him.

Terran's brows furrowed. "Why do I have a bad feeling this is not going to be the last of him?" He shook his head. This was not good, for anyone. Especially for him and his father. "Will I have to?" 

* * *

Troll belongs to Tracy Fisher. And thanks to her for several ideas for this chapter. :)  
Don't get confused with the Green Goblin calling Terran, Spider. That reference has nothing to do with Stephen's alternate ego, Spider. 

* * *

Chapter Three: Spider-Man's Return?

* * *

This chapter was written and typed to _The Spider-Man_ soundtrack, Contemporary Celtic Instruments _Playing With Fire_, DareDevil theme song _Bring Me To Life_ by EvaneSence, and the _X-Men_ soundtrack. 

  



	3. SpiderMan's Return?

Chapter Three  
Spider-Man's Return?

* * *

The stream of smoke slowly faded away the further the Green Goblin got. However, his ear wrenching cackle seemed to echo all around Terran. Or was it just in his head? He couldn't tell because there was one thought racing through his head. "He came back for Spider-Man, but how does he know about _me_?" He combed his fingers through his hair, and sighed solemnly. What was he going to do? He knew one thing for sure. He had to tell his father about the Green Goblin reappearing and going after him. Maybe, just maybe, he would know what to do. However, he had a bad feeling of what his father just might do, and that was out of the question. It would be too dangerous. Then again, it was what was on his mind as well. He shook his head. "No. We talk first." With one last glance, he jumped over the edge of the roof, landed on the ground, and cautiously made his way to the Daily Bugle building. He couldn't waste time going back to school again. Besides, he still had things he didn't want to face at the moment. Stephen being one of them.

He didn't notice as he stood there before he left, a pair of sharp green eyes watching him, and the person whom they belonged to step out from the shadows from the neighboring building after he jumped down. The pale color of his skin almost white in the glaring sun. His auburn hair pushed away from his face. He wasn't happy. He stood perfectly still as stared at the spot where Terran and the Green Goblin had just been, a gust of wind blowing around him, not moving his stone still body. As the wind settled, the corner of his mouth curled up. Jumping onto the ledge of the roof, taking a second glance in the direction the teen had gone, and then disappeared back into the shadows. "Soon..." echoed through the air like a falling feather. 

  
After landing back on the ground in the alley, he walked out, and looked up across the street between several buildings at the Daily Bugle. It was several blocks away, and he knew it was going to take along time to get there. He glanced down at his wrist. He could web sling, but that would be too dangerous. The Green Goblin had already found him twice because of his stupid decision to walk down a dark alley _by himself_, and climb on to an empty roof top _by himself_. If he web slinged the whole way, he'd stick out like a sore thumb, and that was the last thing he needed: getting into another stupid fight with the Green Goblin. As much as he hated being around so many people, it would be best, even if something in the back of his mind told him it wasn't going to be so easy to hide from the Green Goblin.

He glanced down at his watch, and grimaced. It was only nine thirty in the morning. "Maybe I should've wasted more time at school." He sighed. "He's not going to like this." He paused, and rolled his eyes. "Who am I kidding? I never _asked_ for it. I _should_ let him try to figure it out on his own," he mumbled angrily to himself. "It was always his problem before mine. He should've been done with it before he decided to have kids." As he walked on, his grip tightened around the straps of his book bag. If anything, he was more afraid than anything else. What would happen if there was nothing to do, but... No, he shook his head. Fighting back was not the answer. It never should have been. It would just bring in more trouble, more problems. More things that neither he or his father would be able to handle. And he already knew his father wasn't always capable of handling everything. How would he? 

  
After about an hour or so of walking, or wasting time, Terran found himself at the front doors to the Daily Bugle building. He was happy to see the building, actually, but had an uneasy feeling. Even though he walked through heavily crowded streets, he felt he made it there too easily. He was sure that not even crowds of people would keep the Green Goblin's thugs away from getting at him. However, at the moment he had to put that away to the back of his head. He was there, that was all that mattered. And as much of a relationship he and his father didn't have, he finally had to tell him about the Green Goblin being back, and going after him. He only hoped his father's reaction, or actions, wouldn't be what he was thinking they would be. Fighting back wouldn't be the way to go. It couldn't be. It's how it started, and as high Terran had kept Spider-Man in his thoughts, he didn't want to see anymore fighting. Especially after finding out who the real Spider-Man was.

With a look of determination on his face, he walked in to the front desk, and asked softly, "Can I see Mr. Parker? Tell him it's his son, Terran."

The woman at the desk looked up at him, popped her gum, and pressed a button on a small board. A light blinked, several seconds passed, and then finally someone answered. With another look to Terran she spoke. "Yeah, Peter, your son is here to see you."

Terran paid little attention to her, and just looked around the lobby. He thought of all the times his father must have walked in there with all types of pictures and news on Spider-Man, when the entire time it was him. He had the job in the bag, and the whole time they all thought he really knew Spider-Man, and was great friends with him. He smiled to himself. What a schemer his father must have been when he was his age. The loud pop of gum bubble brought his attention back to the front desk. "Huh?"

The woman rolled her eyes,. and shook her head. Looking back down at the magazine in front of her, she said, "You dad will be down in a second."

"Thanks," he mumbled, turning around and looking around uncomfortably. He hated situations where he had to stand around in a busy place by himself. He felt as if everyone was watching him. _Hurry up, dad_, he thought to himself uneasily as he watched people walk in and out of the rooms, front doors, and elevators. It made him wonder why his father would work in a place like this. He started to realize why he never visited his father at his office before. Besides the non-relationship. Suddenly, the corner of his mouth curled up. To go from being Spider-Man to the daily photographer of a newspaper. _What a change_, he thought. "How did he do it?" he wondered a loud, not realizing his father had just stepped out from an elevator, and was walking to him from behind. Not until Peter put a hand on his shoulder, that made him almost jump a mile. He was so busy looking around, his spider sense didn't kick in. Either that, or it did, and he was too infatuated with his surrounding and thoughts. "What the...?" He instantly turned on his heels.  
"It's only me," Peter greeted his son with a smile. "Nice reaction time."

Terran sighed. "Figures."

Peter dismissed the comment, and said, "The transition wasn't the easiest you know."

The teen raised an eyebrow.

Peter laughed. "You asked how I did it, and that's my answer." The only reply from his son was a surprised look that lasted all of a half a minute, and nothing else. So Peter continued. "Let's go to my office. I have a feeling what you have to say is important. Considering you're not in school when you should be." He looked at Terran with an amused sort of look.

The only hint of any reaction to that comment was a slight slouch in Terran's posture, but he ignored it. Only for the reason that he was sure he wasn't going to like what his son had to say.

The expression upon Terran's face turned serious as they walked to the door of the elevator. "You have no idea, dad."

Peter pressed the up button next to the door of the elevator. When the doors opened, he let his son go in first. With a suspicious look in his eyes, he looked around the lobby floor. He sensed something, but for that moment he was going to have to ignore it. His son came first above all things. Especially since he had a feeling that whatever his son did have to tell him had something to do with what he was sensing, and his past. Was it coming back to haunt him? With a second glance to the lobby doors, he walked in and stood beside Terran -- who was looking down at the floor -- the doors shutting behind with a loud clank. He looked out the corner of his eyes at his son. At that moment he looked so small. It was as if he was that little boy he watched growing up in his house. Terran was so innocent then. He didn't know anything, but happiness. _What changed that?_ The next thing he knew a bell rang, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened -- again, with another clank. For a half of a second neither moved, until Terran just stepped out, Peter following. Putting a hand on his son's shoulder, he said, "Let's go, my office is in the back." He gave Terran an uneasy smile, and stepped ahead of him.

Terran stared at his father's back for several moments before he followed his father's steps. He didn't like that smile. With a quite sigh, he started walking, which was when he also began to take glances out of the corner of his eyes at the office floor. It didn't look like what he thought it would be: busy. There were only a dozen or less people walking about, talking to someone on a phone, or working at a computer. The lobby had more people in it.

He didn't notice that Peter was watching him with an amused look until he said something. "Don't worry, it's still early. Give it about another half hour, and you won't be able to even hear yourself think," he laughed.

Terran shuddered at the thought. "I shouldn't still be here in an hour."

"You're right," Peter agreed. He stopped suddenly by a door, and opened it, directing his son in. "You'll be in school," he added quickly, closing the door behind himself.

Terran shook his head, but decided better than to argue. He had other things to worry about besides walking into Stephen again. The Green Goblin was a bigger threat than a friend who with held information which might have even kept him out of the situation he was in at the moment. But that was a different story. Taking a seat at his father's desk, he took a long, deep sigh.

Peter did the same, and made sure his chair was turned so he could face his son directly. He as well took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and than asked with a serious tone, "What is it, now?"

At first, Terran hesitated. He was almost afraid of how his dad would react. How would anyone react when they heard that someone they thought was gone for good came back suddenly? Not good, but he was there now, so he couldn't not say anything.

"Terran?" Peter said, worriedly.

"Hm?" He stared straight into his father's eyes, but turned away, and said more so to the desk than to Peter, "You're not going to like this. I haven't since I got home yesterday." He looked back up to his father's face. This was no time to get uneasy. "I didn't find out about my powers by accident. Someone helped with with that."

It was Peter's turn to raise an eyebrow. He was right, wasn't liking the sound of it. "What is it, Terran? Who?"

Terran ignored the questions, and kept on talking. " He came after me again before, and I don't think he's going to stop." Terran paused again, and then cleared his throat. "Dad, it was the Green Goblin."

Peter instantly stood up, slamming his hands down. His eyes wide open. "What?!" he yelled out. He leaned forward. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He was trying ever so hard to keep his temper down, but it was more difficult than usual. "This is not the kind of thing to keep away from my knowledge, Terran."

The teen shook his head in anger. He knew his father was going to react this way. It was natural. He looked at his father, and snapped back, "Because I _knew_ you were going to react this way! I knew you'd blow up in my face. Whether I told you now or yesterday, but I didn't ant mom to know. Besides that, I think it's fucked up I was told to my face that you were Spider-Man by some freak in a green costume, _dad_!" He was standing up by the end of the last sentence, and was almost in Peter's face.

Peter shook his head. "This is different," he sighed in annoyance. "He could have killed you, Terran!" Don't you understand that?"

"No, dad, I don't," Terran replied harshly.

"You should've let me handle this. I don't want to see you dead."

Terran laughed. "It should have already been dealt with." He gave Peter a disgusted look. "You should have ended this a long time ago."

Peter grabbed his son by the collar of his shirt. "Don't even bring that up. I thought I explained to you what happened. It's not all fun and games, Terran. It was never a piece of cake."

Terran ripped his shirt out of his father's grip, and stared at him coldly. "All what I'm saying is that you should have known this was going to happen, dad." He ended his last words softly, the expression on his face turning from anger to sadness.

Peter sighed, his hand curling into a fist. His head dropped down. "I did, but I just thought he and the rest would just fade away. I guess I made the biggest mistake of my life doing that," he said solemnly.

Terran looked at his father with sad eyes. "Dad..."

He was cut off when Peter suddenly looked up with a determined expression on his face. "I'm not going to let that happen now. I'm ending this, now."

Terran's eyes went wide. He knew it. "No, dad. No." He shook his head fervently, and grabbed his father's arm. "No, that's not how to solve it this time. It didn't work last time. It's not going to work now."

"That's how the Goblin works, Terran. Fighting is the only thing he knows how to do," Peter explained harshly. However, it came out more cold than he wanted it to.

Terran just looked at his father sadly. He couldn't believe what just came out of his mouth. At him. "But _you_ should know better."

That made Peter stop. His arms dropped to his side, and he closed his eyes. Was Terran right? Should he have known better? Did he do all the wrong things for all those years? Should he have just let things happen, and let them be? But then what? He didn't know. He shook his head head, and then looked up at his son. "Terran, he's not going to just disappear. You have to understand that. He'll keep coming and coming until either you or he or even both of you are dead. That's the way he's always been," he said, thinking back to the days he was Spider-Man. Too often had that happened to him. Just when he thought the Goblin was finally gone, he would show back up in his life again. However, this time he went too far as to go after his son. He couldn't let the Goblin get away with that. Never. He closed his eyes, only to open them again when he felt Terran's hands on his shoulders. He looked into dark, pleading eyes.

"Dad, don't go out and fight. I don't care how pissed off I am about all of this shit going on. Especially at you," he laughed uneasily, but then continued just as seriously, "but I don't want to see you get hurt." He looked away as he said the last part. He almost felt embarrassed to say that to his father. He quickly removed his hands, turned away, and shoved his hands into his pockets.

Peter pushed his hair out of his face, and shook his head. "Terran," he sighed. The boy couldn't understand the emotions tearing through his entire body. Anger, sadness, grief, hatred, all mixing together. Old memories coming back to plague him again after so many years. Terran couldn't ever understand, ever. Just when he thought thins were looking up, the problems from his past came back to haunt him. And not just him, but his son. And as much as his son didn't want him to fight, it was the only way to end it, finally. He spent too many years off. He realized then he should have made sure they were all gone. Gone from not only his life, but all others around him. He saw that the faith and hope he held onto for all those years had been snapped in half, and ripped away from him. How could that happen to him? How? It was all supposed to get better after he got married, after... no he should have realized when his first child had been taken from him that all had gone back to hell. Even the happiness Terran's birth had brought back could not hide the grief in his heart because he knew someone was still out there. Still holding something against Spider-Man. There was no such thing as peace in Peter Parker's life. 'Terran." He looked at his son with a serious and cold gaze.

Terran shook his head.

Peter's brows furrowed. He had to. "I won't." For a half a minute he stared into his son's eyes. Was there hope there? Did he see hope there? Peace even? No. He turned away, and said sternly," Go back to school. I don't want your mother to get worried if they call." Without another look, he walked over to his desk, and sat down, turning his back to his son.

Terran sighed solemnly as he closed his eyes, and his body go limp. _Dad..._ Did he make a mistake going there? Maybe he should have kept it to himself. No. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he knew he did the right thing. However, he had a horrible feeling his father's word were hiding the real thoughts in his head. But at the moment, he had to believe his father, even at the situations that had happened the past two days. He gave his father one last look, and then walked to the door. His hand shook as he turned the know, and opened the door, slamming it behind him. He had to go back to school whether he liked it or not.

Peter's brows furrowed deeper as he stared out the window. He took a deep breath and sighed it out slowly. "Terran was right. This should never have happened," he said shaking his head regretfully. "I should have realized this was never going to disappear." His hand curled into a tight fist. "Damn it!" He looked down at the white marks on his wrists. As much as he loved his son, and would do anything for him, but this time he just couldn't. As much as Terran believed fighting wasn't the answer, it was the only way to stop the Green Goblin... for good. He hoped. And he wasn't going to wait. Looking back into the sky, he said quietly to himself, "Spider-Man..." 

* * *

Terran turned and stared up at the side of the building with a solemn expression on his face. He was almost regretting that he told his father about the Goblin, especially about him meeting up with him... twice. Both times trying ti kill him, but fortunately got out of them... somehow. And even though Peter told him he wouldn't fight, for some strange reason he couldn't believe him father's words. But it didn't matter, there was still little for him to do at the moment. And he had to get back to school before they called the house. His mother would kill him if she found out he skipped school, albeit by accident. So for once in his life he ran as fast as he could -- which, he found out, to be quite fast.

When he got back to the school -- about twenty or so minutes later -- it was only fifth period. Well, half way through fifth period, anyway. After checking himself in at the office -- which turned out to be perfect timing since they were just about to call him house -- he went to his class. He knew who he would find in the room, and he wasn't looking forward to it. However, it was inevitable that he would have to talk to Stephen. But the question was: Would he be able to... ever? How could anyone get over the fact that their best friend was really a clone of their father's clone? It was actually a sickening thought, and he didn't really want to know who or why, but knew it would be the only way to an answer. So, with a deep breath, he opened the door, and kept his attention on the teacher, and not the back of the room. He could feel Stephen's eyes on him, but ignored them.

The teacher stopped in mid-sentence when the door opened, and gave Terran an aggravated look. He was a teacher who hated being interrupted. Tapping his pen on the desk, he cleared his throat, and said, rather sarcastically, 'Good of you to join us, Mr. Parker. Get to a seat so I can get back to the lesson. That is, unless you have something to say."

Terran shook his head, and walked to the back mumbling something incoherent under his breath. _I knew I should have waited_, he thought as he stopped at his usual corner desk -- beside Stephen who stared at him from the corner of his eye, which Terran continued ignoring.

Stephen took that time between the teacher's confrontation with Terran to jot down something down on a ripped piece of paper from his notebook. With a second glance at the teacher, he quickly passed it over. He didn't bother holding it out to his friend because he knew Terran wouldn't take it from him. He could understand why. Finding out what he did was a reasonable reason to hate someone, but Terran should hear him out before he could really hate his guts. Besides, Terran was going to need some help with what he was going through. Of course, Peter would be a help, but not in all ways.

Terran's eyes instantly turned right when he saw Stephen's hand move in his direction, followed by a piece of folded up and crushed ball of paper. His eyes followed the paper as it landed next to his hand. For several seconds he just stared at it, until he brought his hands up, and straightened it out. He wanted to just throw it away, but knew if he didn't let go, or start letting it go, his grudge would hold for a very long time. And it was already too hard to handle. Looking down at the scribbled note, he read it over quickly, folded it back up, and shoved it in his pocket without even giving Stephen an form of response. _We have to talk... Yeah, we sure do, Stephen._

And when the class finally ended, Stephen was one of the first to get up and leave, leaving Terran just standing there to stare at empty space. Maybe he should have made some type of reply to the note. Or maybe not. He was so confused he didn't really know what to think. So, without anymore present thoughts on the subject, he walked out of the classroom ready to go to lunch. However, when he turned, he came face to face with Stephen, who just stared right back. Terran sighed, slouching shoulders. "I can't believe this."

Stephen didn't take his eyes off of him. "Well, it's as good a time as any. And I think this time we really need to talk... and listen." The seriousness in his voice almost scared him. He was usually such a calm and laid back person that cared little for being serious, or even taking anything serious. It was a side of him he never really liked, and, well, was scared of it.

Terran tried his best not to look away as he normally would, and said, "And as much as I don't, we do."

With a slight bit of hesitation from the two of them, they turned, and walked in the opposite direction all other students went. When going to talk about matters such as the one they were, it was good to keep it private. 

* * *

Later that evening in the Parker household after Terran and Peter came home, and the two of them and Mary Jane had eaten and finished their rather quiet evening meal, they had all gone their separate directions: Terran went to his room, Mary Jane went to her and Peter's room, and Peter went to his study where he sat staring down at a small, dusty, and old suitcase. It was something he never thought he would set his eyes on or open ever again. He never told Mary Jane about, and kept it a secret even from her after so many years. Sometimes he felt guilty. but more often than not, if need be, he would go back out. It was, at the same time, a destiny and a curse.

There was only that one incident four years before when the original Green Goblin came back.* Mary Jane hated the fact that he went back out as Spider-Man. It was an event he would never forget, but one that scarred him deep in his heart. He would never really know the real truth because the Green Goblin killed himself then. This time Terran was in danger now, and he wasn't going to sit and not know what the Goblin was doing to his son. And now that Terran had told him, he had to do something. He wasn't going to let the same thing happen twice. He was not going to loose Terran, too.

He flipped the locks with his thumbs, and pushed the top up to look down at the very familiar blue and red costume. It brought back many memories -- good and bad. "One more time, old friend." Without any seconds hesitation, he pulled it out. Spider-Man was back... 

  
Peter stood at the top of a building with his mask held tightly in a fist. He closed his eyes as a gust of wind blew over him. It had been so long since he had done this, but he couldn't enjoy it. He had a Goblin to hunt down. He slipped the mask over his head, dived off of the building, and web slinged through the city street. If he had to, we would search all night. However, he had a feeling the Goblin would be looking for him as well. So, he made certain to stay as high as he could. He wanted to be seen. The Green Goblin was not going to get away this time, whether he ended up dead or wounded, the Green Goblin would never hurt another soul again.

He perked his ears up when he heard a strange buzzing noise from behind. Something was setting his spider sense off. Shooting out a rope of web at the side of a building, he made a tilted, wide turn up, and then let go, flying on to the roof with perfect grace. It was as if he had never stopped. Perching himself to the edge of the roof, he yelled out, as loud as he could, 'Where are you, Goblin?! Come out from your hiding place!"

Nothing. After the echo faded away, Peter's ears were empty of any sound, except for the cars and people below. Just as he was about to yell out again, his spider sense went wild, and a loud cackle mixed with the grinding of an engine came out from behind him. He ducked just in time to have the Goblin and glider fly over his head. "Goblin!" he yelled out in rage. The monster had the same ugly yellow eyes, and hideous smirk on his face. "How dare you return!"

"Haha, Spider-Man. I knew you'd come. It was only a matter of time. I knew your little boy would talk," he cackled insanely as he circled around Peter. "The Spider has come out to play." The words had a playfully, mad tune to them. He was as insane as ever.

"Some things never change. Do they, Goblin? I should have killed you and your father when I had the chance," Peter growled as he followed every move the Goblin made.

The Goblin gave him a pathetically, sad face and frowned. "Oh, don't you think that was a bit harsh, Spider-Man?" He smiled slowly, and shook his head. "I don't think you really meant that."

Peter bent low, ready to jump. "Oh, I meant every word of it, Goblin. And this time I'll finish you off! And that's a promise!" In a blink of an eye, he jumped, and landed on top of the Green Goblin's shoulders. "You will _NOT_ hurt my family ever again!" 

* * *

Further into the city, away from the destined battle of the SPider and Goblin, a club was exploding with energy. Dozens of club goers talked, danced, and raved all over the place. All of them oblivious to the fighting. All just enjoying themselves, listening to the music played by one of the best DJs in the city. It was a mystery to most, if not all, who knew him, but they all loved his playing. He was one of the reasons most people went to the club.

The banner under the set up read Dj Talon in bright, funky letter and colors. Letting everyone know who he was so they could remember him. Ironically, as popular as he was, he never actually spoke to any of them. Holding an ear piece over one of his strange, pointed ears -- that many thought were just part of a costume -- he would keep the rest of his attention to the records on the turntables as he flipped the switches and records back and forth. It was almost like an art to him. He would let nothing distract him as he pour all of his emotions into it. Except on this night.

With one of his ears free from the headphones, he was able to hear some of the things that people talked about, or if a fight was happening. His almost perfect hearing was always a good thing when it came to stopping a fight. This time around, it wasn't a fight he heard, but five words that caught his attention: Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. He instantly froze up, and his eyes went wide with anger. _The Goblin..._

A shout, or several of them, from the crowd brought him back to his senses. However, he was not going to forget those words. Spider-Man and the Green Goblin were back, and fighting. 

* * *

Terran woke up groggily from his bed, and turned to face in clock. It was only one-thirty in the morning. And he thought to himself, _Why am I up._ A rustling below answered his questions, along with his spider sense that woke him up fully. It couldn't be good whatever it was below. He flung the covers off of his body, and jumped out of the bed, opening the door, and rushed to the top of the steps. He was in a right enough mind to know not to go stomping down the steps alerting whoever it was in the house. If, whoever it was, was in the house, it wouldn't be good to scare them anyhow. Terran didn't want anything to happen to him. It was better to sneak up on them first.

He listened more closely as he slowly and quietly made his way down the stairs. The sound was coming from the front door. He furrowed his brows, and knocked his wrist back, ready to web the person if they broke into the house. However, as the minutes passed, nothing happened. No one broke in. In fact, the rustling at the door turned into a loud thud against the door. Terran instantly jumped down from the step he was on, and as quickly as he could, unlocked the door. Something told him whatever, or whoever, it was on the other side of that door was in serious trouble. He flung the door open as soon as it was unlocked, and stared wide eyed at a bleeding Spider-Man at his doorstep. "Dad?" He gently picked Peter -- or what was left of him -- up and brought him into the house, laying him on the couch. He swiftly walked back to the door, and closed it, making sure no one saw what just happened. He walked back over to Peter who was bearly breathing, and held his head up. "Dad, you..."

Peter coughed, and forced out, wincing in pain, "The... Gob... lin... Ter... ran..." and then passed out.

Terran held his father's body closer to his own, and screamed out, "DAD!" He shook his head in anger, is hands curling into fists. He knew it, he just knew this was going to happen, but he didn't stop it. And now his father was badly wounded because of him. Now he understood what his father meant. He scowled deeply, his body shaking in rage. He sniffled the tears back. "The Goblin will pay..." 

* * *

Chapter Four: The Volcano

* * *

*Look to Troll's bio for information on the incident.  
Troll belongs to Tracy Fisher. 

* * *

This chapter was written and typed to an original cd and the Linkin Park cd _Meteora_. 

  



	4. The Volcano

Chapter Four  
The Volcano

* * *

Normie Osborn, better known as Slash by everyone else, sped down a street on his motorcycle at full speed. He didn't care if anyone saw him, even the police. All what he wanted to do was get home. Where was he leaving from? Behind him OsCorp slowly disappeared in the distance, the building darker than usual. Either that, or it was because there was a bigger commotion taking place on the other side of the city. A smile streaked over his face as a street lamp lit up his face under his helmet. It was no normal joyride grin either. Pushing his foot harder on the gas making the bike go even faster.

When he finally reached the destination of his home -- a rather large apartment -- he quickly parked the bike and ran into the elevator. Several minutes later he was at his floor and stepped out. He looked around the dark apartment almost surprised not to find any lights on, or his father's annoying voice. His dad had a horrible habit of never leaving him alone, and he hated it. "Dad?" He waited a few seconds.

No reply.

He grinned, nodding his head in approval to the silence that was his answer. Although it was so late, he didn't let it worry him. Then again, Harry had been busy more often, and not always in the right mind to boot. He figured he knew why, but he couldn't find that possible. Spider-Man had been gone for years, and his grandfather, Norman Osborn, dead just as long. There would be no need for a Green Goblin. But Slash wasn't going to ask. He wasn't even supposed to know about it. He laughed as he walked to the back of the apartment, not even bothering to turn the light on for his father.

He had no clue at that moment the real truth behind his words was happening. The Spider and the Goblin _were_ fighting. 

  
The next morning, Slash woke to an empty apartment, but didn't care. He did his normal routine in the morning as he got himself ready for school. After he finished dressing, he walked into the living quarters and turned on the television. His eyes lit up when he saw the images on the news broadcast was showing. He sat down on the couch, leaned forward on his knees, and turned the volume up. The smile on his face turned into an almost malicious smirk as the news footage panned over what was left of a burning building, some parts of it still ablaze.

He listened to what the news caster had to say. "The fire department say that this was no accidental fire because of the damage caused, and the way it spread. However, they're still looking into the causes of this horrible blaze. What they have told us so far is that it has the same looks as the one from a few weeks ago. So they believe it to be the same person who set both." The reporter stopped to listen to what was being said through his ear piece. "Like the last fire, there is no evidence of any chemicals, or even faulty electrical equipment. There are also no traces of foot prints, or any other kind of print that could be used as a clue. It's turning into another open ended case. The best we can do is keep you posted until further news is found..."

Slash laughed out loud as he turned the tv off, and pushed himself up from the couch. Putting the remote down on top of the television, he walked over to the front door. "And they'll never find out, buddy," he said as he threw his bag over his shoulder and chest. "Pops and granddad's equipment still has some good use left in it." He grabbed the keys to his bike off of the small table next to the door. "It's a shame neither of them realized its potential."

Just as he left the apartment, and the door shut, the phone began to ring. After several seconds of ringing, the answering machine finally clicked on. "Thanks for calling the Osborn residents. Sorry my dad and I missed your call. Leave your message and we'll get back to you..."

It clicked again as the greeting finished, and then beeped. "It's Harry, Normie. I'll be late coming home again. I... um... had some things to take care of last night." He coughed, and then cleared his throat. He sounded nervous. "They... they didn't turn out as expected. I'm... not sure when I'll be home." After a long pause he finally hung up, ending the message. A message that would most likely never be heard by either Slash or Harry. 

* * *

Peter had been in the intensive care unit since Terran and Mary Jane brought him in. After a few hours his breathing slowly became steady, although his heart beat was still unusually slow. The gashes and cuts and broken bones didn't even look any better than when they brought him in. That worried Mary Jane the most, though. Even back when he fought all the time his wounds healed rather quickly. The worst lasting about a week or less. These wounds seemed to get worse the more she stared at him.

She tightened her grip on Peter's hand and sniffled. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. "Oh, Peter," she cried out softly. "Why? Why did you do this? I knew this would happen. Why didn't you listen to me?"

His only reply was his chest moving up and down from his shallow breathing.

She watched the heart monitor as it beeped steadily, the bumps staying at a low level. It worried her more so than ever before. "Fight it, Peter. Don't you give up on me... and Terran." She gazed out the window to see their son staring into space, a glazed look in his eyes. "He's a strong boy, Peter, but I fear what this has done to him. Finding out the truth after so many years, and then you come in like that. He's breaking, Peter." She closed her eyes, almost wanting to scream out all of her frustrations and pains. "I don't want to lose another child." 

* * *

Terran stood outside of the hospital room where his father laid unconscious and his mother sat worried. After they brought his father in, he didn't want to go in and see him. He was both angry and frightened. Angry because his father left without telling them for what happened to him. Frightened because he finally found out for a fact that the Amazing Spider-Man wasn't invincible. However, over both those, he was furious. Furious at what the Goblin did to his father. What happened meant that he would go to any lengths to get him out of his life. He shook his head in aggravation and guilt. He should have never of told Peter of the Goblin. He knew what his father would do, and knew it would bring more grief in all of their lives. Terran knew his mother didn't want him to ever fight again. He saw it in her eyes.

"This can't be happening," he mumbled to himself angrily. He suddenly looked through the window at his mother. He saw her tears and it broke him up. Then he slowly looked to his father. He looked so helpless all bandaged and bruised and unconscious. At almost didn't look like Peter. That couldn't have been his father. _No._ Peter was too strong. He was always able to handle any kind of situation. Terran quickly turned his head away, and said solemnly, "No, no one is invincible. Not even a super hero." It hurt him even more than ever to see his father like that. It pained him in his heart. "Goblin..." he growled under his breath.

Suddenly, someone came running down that hallway yelling out his name.

Terran looked up to see Stephen. It made him a little happy to see someone who cared. He turned to face him. "Stephen..."

Stephen leaned over, his hands on his knees as he breathed heard from running. "Terran, I got down here as soon as I heard," he said between rushed breathes. "What happened? All what my mom and dad said was that something happened to Peter, and he was in ICU." After he finally caught his breath, he straightened up to get a good look at Terran's face. He stepped back when he did, though. "Shit, man, you look horrible." He tilted his head to the side and grinned. "I like the bloody look, though. New style?" A very mild attempt at a joke, but it worked... a little.

Terran shook his head with a slight smile on his face. "Thanks." He leaned against the wall, his head tilting back. "I told him about the Goblin yesterday morning before I went back to school. Man, I knew what he was going to do, but didn't do anything about it." HIs almost steady voice began shaking uncontrollably, along with the rest of his body. "I didn't stop him, Stephen." He looked to his friend with pleading eyes. "I could have stopped him. I could have stopped this," he yelled out in aggravation as he pointed at Peter's limp body in the bed. "It's my fault!"

Stephen grabbed his hysteric friend by the shoulders, and shook him. "Ter, stop it. What are you talking about? It's not your fault. Your dad went out to help you. To protect you. He risked his life for you and everyone else. It might have been stupid, but..." He stopped. He had never seen Terran act like the way he was. It was a side of his friend he never imagined. And it almost scared him. He looked up when he heard Terran talk again, albeit more coldly than hysterically.

"I know my dad and I have never had a great relationship all these years, but he never deserved this." His hands curled into fists. "The Goblin will pay, Stephen." He stared straight into gray eyes. "He's tried too many times in the past to destroy them." His eyes shifted to his parents. "I can't let him get away with this, Stephen." Even he heard his voice falter. What was he saying? He was talking madness. He couldn't. There was no way he could go out there and go after him.

Stephen knew exactly what was on Terran's mind, and he wasn't going to let his friend do it. He shook his head. "No way, Ter. Don't even think about about it. You don't even have any training. You're nuts to even thinking about it. You just freakin' found out. There's no way." He knocked a fist against Terran's head as if to knock sense into his head.

Terran slouched over and turned his head slightly to the side to watch his parents. "Dad was right, Stephen, the Goblin won't give up." He straightened himself up so to stare at his friend at eye level. "So how can we?" He turned around and walked to the door to the room where his parents were and opened it. With a few seconds of hesitation, he walked in, shutting the door behind him.

Stephen watched with sad eyes as Terran sat next to his mother, and she threw herself into his arms. "God, please don't do it,Ter. Don't." With a deep sigh and a shake of his head, he turned around and left. Leaving behind the hope that his friend wouldn't try anything stupid, even if he knew he would. 

* * *

Slash glance over his shoulder at the school as he walked away from it. He smirked. He decided to give himself a half a day of school so he left early. Besides, he had better ways of spending his time than in school. Specially more recently. His father was at home less and less, and that gave him time to himself and his 'projects' that he had started several years ago. Specifically one special project he hoped would change his life, and the lives of everyone around him. However, it was something he never did, and never could, tell his father. An over protective parent, even one as unstable as Harry Osborn, wouldn't want his own son going around the city setting random buildings on fire, but that was Slash's little secret.

Putting a leg over the seat of his motorcycle,he placed his black with flame painted helmet over his head, and started the engine. After several revs, and no second glances, he sped out of the parking lot, and out into the city. However, his destination was not the Osborn residence, but OsCorp. He had plans for himself for the next few nights. 

* * *

Terran was in his father's study with the door closed as he sat at a desk. In his tightly gripped fists was Peter's torn and bloodied up Spider-Man costume. It wasn't what he remembered from all of those pictures he had collected and seen over the past fourteen years. Then again, he still couldn't get over the fact at who the true identity of the super hero really was, and what he himself was. He wasn't a normal teenager. He wasn't like other kids his age. He was _never_ like them. He just didn't find the truth out until the other day. And so many things had happened since then. In a matter of a few days his life had changed. Then again, there was one other person who was like him, and was the one person that didn't change, even if Terran's views of Stephen had changed.

Closing his eyes, he thought back to the conversation he had with Stephen just the day before. He found out so many things of what his friend had dealt with over the past eighteen years. 

  
_He sat a few feet away from Stephen and just stared at him. It was finally his moment to find out the rest of the truth. The second half of what his father told him two days before. As he stared at his friend he realized he didn't have anything to say to him. And even is he did want to, he didn't know what he should even say. Maybe it was the lost and forlorn look on Stephen's face, or maybe he wasn't even mad at him. Either way, he just wanted to know the truth that was kept from him for far too long._

Suddenly, Stephen looked up at him. "Look, Ter, I'm sorry I never told you this before now. I didn't actually find out until a few years ago myself. I figured you had either already have known, or Peter was eventually going to tell you. I never knew you didn't know anything_." He laughed solemnly. "Then again, I didn't think he wasn't ever going to tell you."_

Up until that point, Terran realized Stephen spoke very little of his past in California and of his foster parents. Could it have been possible that he lived an even more difficult life? Terran mentally shook his head. Maybe..._ He looked back up when he heard his friend's voice again._

Stephen took a deep breath. "I knew I'd be telling you everything sometime. Anyway. You already know I grew up in California, and for years I grew just knowing my foster parents, but I never thought who my real parents were. I was a happy kid," he said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. "But for fifteen years I never once felt at home there." He stared straight into Terran's eyes as he said it. "There was always some part of me that felt far away. As if I should have been living my life somewhere else with someone else. And I think my parents finally realized it when..." He paused and quickly turned away. He took slow, easy breaths and continued. "Terran, I wasn't always like the way you know me. Although I was a happy kid on the outside, I wasn't always one on the inside. I lead a difficult life of trying to figure out who I really was.

"I think they wanted to talk to me before I did anything stupid. So, one day they just sat me down and gave me a 'belated birthday' gift." He smiled at the thought. It was a day he would never forget. "I thought nothing of it until I opened it." He suddenly went rummaging through his bag until he found what he wanted, and took them out. "These are what they gave me, Ter."

Terran raised an eyebrow. They looked so familiar. He had seen them before. Then it hit him. "Web shooters?"

Stephen nodded his head solemnly. "They told me that my father wanted to give them to me when I was old enough to know, but it didn't turn out as expected." He shook his head sadly. "They never knew how long they were actually going to take care of me. They figured for a few years and my dad would come back to me, but that never happened. So they decided to basically so to me what Peter and Mary Jane did to you: keep it a secret from me." Stephen sighed deeply, and let out a quiet chuckle. "Nothing ever seems to turn out how anyone wants it?" He shrugged his shoulders and continued. "When they gave me the shooters they finally told me who my real father was: Ben Reilly. But they had no clue at what happened to him. He called once or twice the first year, and then the phone calls just stopped, and they never knew until then. No great loss, eh? I still don't know exactly what happened to him." He stretched his legs out under the desk, and leaned his head back, his arms dropping to his sides.

Terran just stared at him in silence. For the first time in the time he had known Stephen he had absolutely nothing to say. All those years he thought he had it bad. At least he knew who his parents were, even if they kept secrets from him.

Stephen once again continued. "I knew then that they were still hiding something from me. Sure, web shooters... and? I figured they were playing some cheap and stupid game with me. Some sick joke. But they weren't. They were way too serious, and it scares me just thinking about it because I think they knew I was going to leave once they told me. Told me that Ben Reilly was really the clone of Peter Parker, the_ Spider-Man, and that _I_ was _his_ clone." He shook his head in disgust. "The first thing that went through my mind was that it couldn't be true. Then they showed me an old picture of Ben. Then I thought what sick fuck could do such a thing to someone, to anyone." He sat back up to look at Terran. "That's when I left LA and came here, to New York, Ter. They told me about Peter Parker, and that he lived in New York City, but that's all what they knew. I found everything else out on my own. Peter working at the Daily Bugle, he being married to Mary Jane, and having a son a year younger than me. After I found all of that out, I finally felt that I was whole for the first time in my whole damned life. I found my real family, even if not all of them knew it." He laughed and put a hand on Terran's shoulder. "I don't even want to think about about what that makes me to you, though."_

Terran gave his friend a soft smile. "I don't either..." 

  
"I don't want to know," Terran thought aloud in retrospect. He smiled, but it didn't last long. He still couldn't forget what the Green Goblin did to his father. He shook his head in rage. "Stephen... dad... mom." What was he going to do? 

* * *

It took Slash longer than usual to get into the OsCorp building. There were more people than he thought were going to be there. Namely, his father which was more of a surprise than anything else, but it didn't stop him and make him go back to school. Even is his father did see him, he could have cared less what Harry thought or said to him. He had more important things to do than listen to his father or to go to school.

After several minutes of watching Harry, he turned a corner, opened a door, climbed the stairs up a level, and stepped out into an empty corridor. A very destroyed floor of the building. It happened long before his time, and knew it meant something to his father, exactly what, he didn't know. Although, he did have a small idea what it could have been. What he did know for sure, though, was that he could conduct as many experiments that he wanted, and do all of his work there. In the few years that he had been there, he had never seen a soul step foot onto the floor, and never even heard anyone talk about it. It was only by chance that he found it. And now he had secrets of his own, and he could thank his father for that. If it wasn't for that one time Harry brought him to work he would have never have found the room, and what he always was looking for: a name for himself.

Stepping up to a door, he typed a code into the small lock beside it, and the door opened, albeit rather slowly and jerkily. He had to push it the rest of the way open to get in. After stepping into the room, he dropped his bag down, shut the door, and walked over to a lone table in the middle of the room surrounded by computer equipment on one side, and a gigantic glass chamber on the other. In the chamber stood a huge metal suit. On the table were several pages of scribbled notes, and a few maps of the city. One that had two bright red markings on them. The sights of the two fires.

Slash tapped a red marker to his chin as he looked over the maps and notes. "Where to next?" He turned to the suit. "It still needs some tuning." He walked up to the chamber and set his hand flat against the glass as he stared fixedly at the metal monster inside. 

* * *

Ever since Terran had gotten back home from the hospital he had stayed in his father's study, not even coming out when his mother finally came home, and when she called him down to eat. He just stared down at the torn and bloodied pieces of fabric that was left of the Spider-Man costume, his father's costume. His deep brown eyes had a glazed and red look to them as tears slowly dripped down his cheeks and into the costume. His figure in the moonlight had the look of a fragile porcelain doll. Every few seconds his body would shake and he would hold the fabric closer. "Dad, it's all my fault..." he whimpered. "What am I supposed to do now?" He brought his hand up to wipe the tears off of his face, but suddenly stopped. His grip on the costume loosened slightly, and his head instantly bolted up, his eyes wide open.

Something had set his spider-sense off. But what?

He put the costume back down on the table and slowly stood up, looking around the room, all of his senses alert. Suddenly, a horrible, nightmarish cackle filled the room, making him look in every direction until his gaze fell on the window. In one giant leap and movement, he was at the window and opened it. With one hand gripping the top of the window and his feet firmly planted at the edge of the sill, he looked up and down frantically until his eyes fell on a very suspicious looking shadow on the top of a nearby building. He just stared at it. "Goblin," he said under his breath as if it were poison.

The laugh continued until the Goblin finally spoke in his usual singsong voice. "Can the spider come out and play?" The engine of the glider thundered alive and through the air. "Or is he too afraid to?" He laughed again and then sped off -- the laugh echoing through the air surrounding Terran's head.

Terran scowled. "You bastard, you'll pay." In one graceful movement, he jumped back into the room, but then halted. His eyes scanned the room and stopped on the shredded spider costume. He knew the danger of his actions, but didn't care about them at the moment. He started to look over the room again, thoughts running hundreds of miles through his head. Questioning his own strength to do what he planned to do. Was he so sure of himself that he could do it? Or was he just letting the Goblin get the best of him? All what he did know was that his father laid in critical condition in the hospital because some psychotic schizo decided to take an old grudge too far.

Next thing he knew, he stood on the roof of the building where he first saw the Goblin that night in one of Peter's Spider-Man costumes. He held the mask in both hands as he stared down at it with an almost frightened, but determined and angered expression on his face. "Dad..." With a deep in take of breath, he donned the mask, completing the costume and his look. The Spider had been reborn, but for how long?

He looked back at his home, the expression on his face softening at the thought of his mother, but forced all and any thoughts away as he turned back. His eyes followed the smoke trail until he saw a small moving body in the distance. The Goblin was purposefully wasting time. He wanted him to follow, and that was exactly what Terran had in mind. Without any second's hesitation, he dived off of the building and web slung through the city, following the long and zigzagged stream f smoke. It would only be a matter of time before he would be face to face with his father's long time arch enemy. This time he hoped it would stop, leaving he and his father alone. But was that the fate of the Parkers? Terran feared that the Goblin would only be the beginning. 

* * *

Stephen walked down the quiet street with his hands in his pockets and a solemn expression on his face. After what happened between Terran and him that afternoon he didn't bother to go back to school or even go home. He spent the time walking around the city thinking about Terran, Peter, the Green Goblin. It was something he never should have not expected, but it scared him. It was a life he never really was ready for. A life he never deserved, but was stuck with it.

He suddenly stopped in mid step and looked up at the night sky. "Deal with it, Stephen." He laughed softly to himself, "Better than a boring life back in LA. Ah, New York, the city where only psychos dress up in stupid green costumes just to torment people and exact revenge." But then the smile on his face disappeared. Something had set off his spider-sense, but he didn't know what. As he quickly looked around himself and his surroundings he saw nothing and heard nothing. "What the...?" His eyes suddenly popped open. "Shit... Terran." At full speed he ran towards his friend's house, glad that he was already heading in that direction. He only hoped that he was wrong at what he was thinking.

As he reached the small, blue house, he again looked around, but by then his spider-sense had calmed. Taking a closer look everything looked fine, normal. He raised an eyebrow at the silence, and then walked up to the front door. He listened carefully for any noise inside the house, but heard nothing. He glanced down at his watch. It was only nine-thirty in the evening. If anyone was home, they would still be up. Taking a step closer to the door, he knocked hard and then rang the door bell. After a few minutes of waiting the hallway light turned on. _Good, someone's home, and it better be you, Terran._

The door slowly opened to a very upset looking Mary Jane. After getting a good look at who it was she quickly let him in. "Oh, hi, Stephen. It's good to see you, but I'm not sure Terran wants to talk to anyone at the moment. After we got back from the hospital he's been in Peter's study." She sighed sadly, holding back the tears that wanted to come and release her grief. "It hit him hard."

Stephen gave her a smile and nodded his head in understanding. "Yeah, I can't believe what happened, Mrs. P, but I'm not exactly here to see Terran." She gave him an odd look, and he shook his head. "Not exactly anyway. I'm here to see if Terran is even _here_."

"What? Of course he is. He couldn't have... left..." Her eyes went wide and she shook her head. "No, he wouldn't have. No, no." She looked Stephen straight in the eyes. If it wasn't for the teen's hair and eyes she could swear it was Peter back from when she first met him. _The poor boy,_ she thought, but quickly shook it out of her head. She couldn't worry about that. No, it was her worst nightmare she worried about. "Stephen, you don't think...?"

He solemnly nodded his head.

She couldn't believe him, and quickly ran up the stairway, and down the hallway to her husband's study. She didn't bother knocking, and just shoved the door open. "Terran..." She looked around the room and fell to her knees when she saw the open window. "Terran!"

Stephen stood behind her staring at the torn and bloodied spider costume laying on the ground. He shook his head. "You idiot," he said under his breath. He put a hand on Mary Jane's shoulder. "I'll find him, Mrs. P." And then he ran back down the stairs and out the door. "This shouldn't be too hard... I hope... Then again, maybe he just went out for a nice evening stroll. Yeah right." 

* * *

Chapter Five: The Spider vs. The Goblin -- Part One

* * *

Troll belongs to Tracy Fisher. 

* * *

This chapter was written and typed to an original cd and the _LotR: The Two Towers_ soundtrack. 

  



	5. The Spider vs The Goblin Take One

Chapter Five  
The Spider vs The Goblin -- Take One

* * *

Terran stood in the middle of an empty warehouse looking around for any sign of movement from the Goblin. He knew he was there because not only did he follow him, but his spider-sense was going off the wall, driving him crazy. It angered him even more that the menace hid after he got there. Terran knew very well that the Green Goblin taunted him and brought him to the warehouse on purpose. He had his own reasons for tormenting the teen and his old enemy, and Terran had his reasons for why he followed. Stupid as it may have been, he wanted to finally end it.

He curled his hands into fists and growled under his breath as he continued his search -- both with his eyes and his senses. "Goblin!" He never had many patience when it came to anyone which had always gotten him into trouble. "Goblin, where the fuck are you?!" And especially now with the Goblin. His patience had come to its limits. He finally yelled out, "Goblin, get the _hell_ out here! I know you're here, psycho, so come out! I've. Had. Enough!"

Nothing. Until...

His head snapped to the side when he heard a scratching sound above him. In the blink of an eye, his arms bolted up, his wrists knocked back, and a rope of web shot straight up, hitting cold steel with a hard splat. It didn't hit his intended target, and he cursed under his breath as he broke the link between his wrist and web.

Then there was another noise to his right... no, to his left... no, in front of him. In three frenzied movements, he shot webbing out in each direction not knowing where the Goblin was coming from. And each shot missed, making even more noise echo throughout the warehouse, and through his head. He growled again, and turned in every direction as more noises and sounds went off. He was never going to pinpoint where the Goblin was hiding. Especially when... His spider-sense went wild, almost making him fall over. Something was coming at him.

_Look up..._

His eyes went wide, and he hesitated.

_LOOK UP!_

He did so, and saw a large piece of metal falling right towards him... and fast. His body went stiff, and then just as suddenly, he jumped and rolled. Only to be missed by centimeters. He just stared wide eyed at the metal. It could have crushed him if he didn't move a second sooner. "Shit..." His heart went fifty miles per hour, and thought it was going to jump out of his chest. _That was too close. Where the fuck is he._ He started to panic.

"Looks like neither of us are great shots, are we?" the Goblin's voice sang out from... somewhere. He was very amused by the panic that struck the boy. "Try a little harder, little spider." His mind numbing voice rang out through the empty warehouse echoing in every corner. "Let's see how many more you can dodge."

Terran winced back at the sound that echoed all around him. _Where is he?_ This time he focused harder, even though he could feel his sweat soak through the mask. He wasn't... no... he couldn't give up now, but another noise rang out, and he reflexively shot out another web line. It hit nothing but more metal, but this time, out of a fit of rage and aggravation, Terran heaved down, pulling the web line, along with whatever it was attached to down. A chunk of the ceiling came groundward, and crashed down beside him. He didn't even flinch. His eyes were filled with pure hatred. He was more determined to get rid of the Goblin more than ever. Or was there more than just the feeling of hatred and getting rid of the Goblin in him? Murder, maybe? He blinked and scanned over the ceiling again. The thought didn't even fade. "Goblin." He said the name as if it were poison.

"Haha, spider brat, you missed again. Should I start counting now, or should I just say I already won?" He laughed and made another noise, but this time the teen didn't flinch and just stood there. "Can you guess where I am, little spider? You know, this is no fun if you don't do anything. Try harder, boy!" He said the last few words with such anger in his voice. It was as if something had hit him mentally. "Spider... spider... spider!"

Terran finally snapped. "Shut. The. Fuck. Up." His arms went up again as another line of webbing shot out of his wrist. The sensation of the webbing going through his arm felt so strange... no, so natural. As if it had always been there, and was waiting to be let free, and show him who he really was.

This time, as the webbing stuck to the ceiling, he climbed up. He realized he wasn't going to get anywhere on the ground. He would be able to see more from the ceiling. "I will get you for what you did," he threatened under his breath, almost as motivation to remind him what had happened and why he was out there to begin with. Another loud clank made him stop and stare around at his surroundings again. This time he saw something move in the shadows, but just as he was about to move, he saw another movement and heard another noise. _There!_ In the Far corner he saw a flash of yellow and green. He let go of the web, only to fall straight at the ground, but before he hit the ground, he flipped, and shot another line of webbing out, and swung straight at the moving shadow. He knocked his free hand back and let a line of web go. That's when he heard a loud thud -- it was not against metal. He hit his target, but just before he could celebrate the webbing fell, taking him with it. He tried to flip over to catch his balance to fall on his feet, but was too close to the ground -- just close enough that if he hit, he would hit hard -- which was exactly what happened. He winced in pain as his back met hard cement, but the pain faded. He shook his head. The material the costume was made of was thicker than he thought, and took in most of the impact, although, his back was still sore. He took a deep breath. _Too close,_ he thought. He could hear the Goblin's wicked laughter somewhere around him, but tried his best to stay calm. He couldn't let that thing get to him.

Then a thought struck him. "The ceiling..." He looked up. He definitely had a better chance of spotting the Goblin from the ceiling. He had a plan, kind of. Well, it was better than nothing, and he swiftly shot a line of webbing straight up, and climbed. When he reached the top he crawled over to one of the metal bracers and then let go, holding on by one hand. "Goblin," he shouted out, "why don't you come out and fight me face to face?" He looked around more carefully this time as his ears followed a low scratching sound. _Or, are you hiding for a reason?_ He smirked, and then let go, falling directly to the ground. Just before his feet met cement, he saw a flicker of steel in the moonlight. With a quick flip in the air, he landed flat on his feet several yards away from where he let himself go, and ran straight, pulling a fist back, but before he reached his destination and slammed his fist forward, he stopped. His eyes went wide. It was a trap!

A pumpkin shaped bomb rolled out from behind a crate and at him. But before he could move, someone grabbed him from behind. The Goblin. However, it wasn't a helpful hand. It was more like a 'let-me-grab you-by-the-wrist-and-twist-it-in-a-direction-it-isn't-supposed-to-go-into' grab. Along with his other hand going around Terran's neck, pulling the teen's other arm down to his side. "Now, you don't think I'd get rid of you that easily do you? No, I like to play with my food first." He illustrated his words by licking his lips and teeth. He was an animal who should have been killed long ago.

Terran winced in pain at the way he was grabbed, and tried to rip the Goblin's grip off of him, but his attempt was in vain. The sudden shock of pain and surprise had momentarily drained him of whatever strength he had had, or was even capable of.

The Goblin laughed in his ear as he pulled and twisted the teen's arm back harder. He got such a rush from the total look of pain and horror he put him through. "It's so sad daddy dearest couldn't be hear to watch this," he said as he dug his nails into Terran's neck, and pulled again.

Terran screamed out in pain. It was too much.

The Goblin enjoyed every minute of it, and closed his eyes to take the scream in more. It was music to his ears. "Yes, it is too bad, eh? To watch me do to you what I did to him. In fact, you look so much the same way. What a kick, eh? Like father like son." There was an evanescent pause in his expression at those last words, but his psychotic look was back within seconds, and he continued. "A couple of rejects." The grin on his face widened. "Or, more like a failure and a reject."

As he talked on and on, aggravating Terran with each and every word or sound that came out of his mouth, the teen continued to struggle to get himself out of the Goblin's tight grip. However, the fowl creature's hold on him was much stronger than he ever anticipated, but he wasn't going to give in that easily. The Goblin was going to pay for his crimes -- now and from the past. He knew he wasn't going to be able to free his right arm. He could swear it was going to be more than just sore by the time he was free from the Goblin. But his left was basically free. True, it was pinned down by the Goblin's other arm, but not as tightly as his other. The Goblin kept most of his strength on the arm that he had pulled back. He winced again as a sudden high pitched cackle echoed through his head, but at that moment...

"Another Spider-Man down the drain," the Goblin said in his very annoying singsong voice as his hand tightened around Terran's neck, and jerked the teen's head up so he could stare into the teen's eyes -- even though it was really the white, bug eyes of the mask. It was enough for him. However, it wasn't the boy who winced and yelled out in pain this time, but him. "What?!" He stumbled backwards rubbing his chin.

Terran had finally loosened his right arm enough to free it and take a shot. Since the Goblin wouldn't shut up, he took the distraction as an advantage and punched as hard as he could. Which turned out much harder than he thought, or even expected. "Didn't your father ever teach you to just shut up and finish what you started?" he said in a mocking tone as he grinned.

The surprise on the Goblin's face lasted only milliseconds and the psychotic smile was back. "Didn't your loving, stupid spider daddy ever tell you not to fight people smarter than you? Either that, or you're more of a reject than I thought." He laughed. "You are sad, boy."

Terran shrugged his shoulders and stared into the Goblin's nightmarish, yellow eyes. "Of course he did..." Without warning, he lunged at the Goblin, taking him by surprise, and punched him square in the face. "but I didn't listen."

The Goblin ignored the hit, and dodged the second. "Fool!" As Terran went to punch a third time, he punched the teen instead in the stomach with two fists, knocking all of the air out of the boy's lungs.

Every inch of Terran's body stopped as the pain ricocheted through every part of his being. His entire body retched forward as he grabbed his stomach and fell to his knees. "You... fuck," he coughed out. He could taste the copper taste of blood on his tongue and it the back of his throat. He forced himself to look up at the Goblin who just smiled down at him. He hated that ugly grin, and was getting sick of seeing it. He slowly made himself stand back up again, but didn't even get the chance.

Once again, the Goblin punched him, and then kicked him in the stomach as he fell. He wasn't going to let the amateur super hero get the best of him this time. It was all him now, it was his show, and he would end it all. If only Norman was there... the thought made him sneer down at the teen. "I am not the same as from the past."

Terran curled up in a ball as he was kicked several more times as he spit blood out of his mouth. The pain was unbearable. Tears soaked through the mask. Regret was the only thing that went through his mind. "What... have I... done?"

The Goblin smirked in triumph and kicked the boy onto his back. The blood made the smile on his face widen. He bent down to get closer to the boy's face. He held one of his pumpkin bombs over Terran's limp body. "And another Spider-Man bites the dust," he sang softly into the teen's ear. "I'm going to enjoy this, Spider-Man." That last part sounded as if he was speaking to Peter rather than his son.

However, at that moment, every inch of Terran's body felt suddenly revived and his hand instantly shot out, grabbing the Goblin by the throat. He was running on pure adrenaline now. In an instant, Terran was back on his feet, holding the Goblin off of the ground and slammed into one of the metal columns. He ignored the pain, and just sneered at the wretched thing that he held. "I am NOT Spider-Man!" he growled out menacingly as he crushed him against the metal column even harder. "I never will be him!" He could hear the steel bend behind the Goblin's body as he pushed harder. Is that what he was capable of?

The Goblin's eyes went wide as he stared down at the boy. His strength was too much. "How... can this... be poss... possible?" He shook his head in horror. This boy was different, very different.

Terran moved his face closer. "Easy, you pissed me off. You messed with the wrong..." His whole body suddenly went on full alert.

That was when the goblin started laughing. "HAHA! Spider-Man, you forgot about one little thing." He held up the pumpkin bomb. "You just killed us both, boy, but my life doesn't matter because you'll finally be dead." His psychotic laughter echoed loudly through the warehouse.

Terran's eyes went wide through the eyes of the mask. "Shit!" Out of instinct he let go to run, but he was unable to. The Goblin had fallen after being let go, but he grabbed onto his wrist on the way.

"You won't get away from me this time, Spider-Man!"

Terran shook his head in total dread as he tried to pull his wrist out of the Goblin's hand. It couldn't end like this. "No, no... NO!"

"TERRAN!"

BOOM!

The bomb exploded, making Terran's body fly backwards, but before he landed against the wall, someone grabbed him, It was someone in a spider costume who gently put the teen's body down, and just as quickly turned on his heels to see if the Goblin had also been thrown back. "Fuck," he cursed under his breath when he heard the rumbling of an engine outside the warehouse along with the Goblin's sardonic cackles. Another sound made him stop completely, though. He heard another start and a loud yelling that followed the Goblin's path. His brow furrowed. _Who could be after the Goblin?_ With a few more seconds more of listening, he finally turned back to the limp form of the teen. Whoever it was, he hoped they gave the Goblin the beating he deserved. "God damn you, Terran." He bent down, and gently picked him up just enough to bring him to a wall and prop his upper body and head up. He stared down at the boy through the large spider eyes of the mask. He saw that last second when Terran's hand shot out as he jumped to his feet, and slam the Goblin into the metal column with such speed, strength, and ferocity. "He unleashed something in you, Ter. And I have a feeling that they should have told you sooner. Letting something like that just sit in you for seventeen years like that was not a good thing..." 

* * *

As the mysterious Spider-Man tried to wake Terran up, the Goblin snuck out through the roof and went zooming back into the city cackling away. "Dead, at last!"

However, that freedom wasn't going to last too much longer.

Just as the Goblin left on his glider, something or someone moved in the shadows of the roof of the warehouse. There was a flash or red, then a flash of pale green, and then the boom of an engine. A streak of silver flew off of the roof, someone on top of it. Someone who looked very determined to get the Goblin. It was the same person who had been watching Terran from the shadows. His green eyes filled with vengeance. "GOBLIN!" he yelled out as he bent down lower to make his hawk-like glider go faster.

At hearing his name called, the Goblin turned his head back to see who it was. He wasn't surprised, but rather amused, and laughed. "Ah, what is this?" he mused as he made his glider fly upside-down as he kept flying ahead, into the city. Then he noticed the green color of the person's skin, and he clapped his hands in amusement. "The Green Goblin has a groupie!" he sang as he reached into the bag by his side. He took out two pumpkin bombs. The already sardonic grin on his face widened. "Eh, too bad," he shrugged, turning the glider and himself back upright.

While he did that, the other glider had quickly caught up to his and was only several yards behind, getting ready to attack, and growling out something too incomprehensible to understand between the engines and the Goblin's own laughing.

The Goblin just smiled and turned around, flying backwards. "I like the look, but..." He threw a bomb. "It's nothing like the real thing!" he cackled, as he swung his glider back and forth waiting for his bomb to blow up the other glider. However, he was very disappointed. It was dodged.

He didn't noticed as he threw the bomb, his follower quickly pulled back and did a large loop in the air and was once again back on his tail.

"Persistent pain in the ass, aren't you. You're just as stupid as the spiders," he spat out, but the smile was back. "That's why I come... Hey!" A hard punch to the face quickly shut him up as he was taken by surprise. Whoever this was, was fast.

His unknown attacker had quickly flew beside him and punched him in the face. "Shut up!" He was getting ready for another shot right after the first, but his fists went under the Goblin's head instead. Wait... under? His green eyes stared right into the upside-down face of the insanely smiling Goblin. He snarled, and lashed out only to catch a pumpkin bomb. There was a half a second worth of surprise on his face, but it disappeared just as soon as it had appeared, and the vengeance in his eyes was back. The Goblin was aggravating him now, especially after flying away. But before he turned to look for him, though, his ears perked up. The Goblin was behind him. In one swift movement, he jumped in the air just as the Goblin flew underneath him, and he threw the bomb at him.

The Goblin saw it coming, but didn't move out of the way in time, and was shook off of his glider. He grabbed the back of it just in time. That was when he really realized that whoever this guy was going after him _was_ for real, and _very_ serious about getting rid of him. However, he wasn't going to let that happen. "Oh no, a Goblin doesn't go down that easily." He said it as if reminding himself of something, and flipped right back onto his glider. "I went through too much for this."

His attacker only smirked, ready to finish the fight as soon as possible.

The Goblin shook his head as a pass of dizziness struck him, and he cracked his neck. He once again stuck his hands into his pouch and took out four pumpkin bombs -- two in each hand. But before he could even throw them, his attacker flew right at him with even more fury than before. However, there was a bit of a change in the creature's demeanor, but he was more intent on staying alive than worrying about his follower's behavior, and zoomed straight up. He looked down to see his attacker right behind him. "I can say you have guts," he laughed between clenched teeth. He was getting slightly worried. Whoever this guy was who was following him was good. However... With a sudden motion, the Goblin jumped off of his glider, and fell right past the second glider cackling all of the way. "You can't catch me!" he sang out as he threw the four bombs straight up, right under the second glider. However, there was something very different about those bombs.

The bright green eyes of his follower went wide as the Goblin dropped down past him. He looked down, ready to go after him, but stopped when he saw the four balls of orange, their eyes glowing an intense yellow. Ready to go off at impact or at any second. "Shit." He now had to dodge rather than go after his real objective. Grabbing the front of his glider, he swiftly tried to move out of the way.

BOOM!

He dodged the first, but wasn't as lucky with the second, and was almost knocked off his glider. There was something very different with those bombs. _They should've gone off by now,_ he thought as his brows furrowed.

A sudden boom from above made him look up, and saw the Goblin's glider heading straight towards him. "Fuck." He hit the gas as hard as he could and was just missed by the freakish glider... moving... on its... own? In the blink of an eye he twisted, and started to follow the glider. However, he didn't get far. The third and forth bombs exploded -- the former above him, the latter beside him. This time doing enough damage that he wouldn't be able to follow the Goblin. He had to keep his balance from letting both he and his glider fall.

And that's when he heard the horrific laughter. A laughter he would always recognize, and never forget. It was the Green Goblin, laughing away as he flew away, albeit rocky as the engine of his glider smoked.

He watched infuriated as his 'prey' got away, and yelled out. "There will be another time," he growled under his breath. Then he stopped in mid thought as he remembered, "Terran..." He turned his glider around and flew back towards the warehouse. 

* * *

After leaning Terran's limp form on the floor and wall, the masked, costumed 'Spider-Man' took off his mask, and threw it to the ground. It was Stephen. and his usual bright gray eyes were filled with complete terror. "Terran. Terran... man, wake up." He put his fingers against his friend's neck. "At least you're still warm... and alive," he mumbled more to himself. He looked over his friends body and shook his head. It was a costume he thought he'd never actually see, especially on Terran's body. He shook his head. Terran was more important than thinking about his DNA. His friend was still very unconscious.

He put his hands on Terran's shoulders and shook him, albeit gently. "Ter, man, wake up. Stupid, you should have known better, man." He slapped him in the face a few times more before he heard a groan come from his friend's mouth. He smiled, and sighed in relief when he saw the expression of pain on Terran's face. He only smile because it was a sign that he was alive. "Terran!"

The wounded teen slowly shook his head, and opened his eyes. All what he could see were blobs of color. His head exploded in pain, and his hands went to either side of his head, but that made him only hurt more. It took him several more moments for the pain to dull just enough, and for his eyes to clear up before he could look straight ahead. He knew someone else was with him, but he didn't know who, and looked up to stare into a set of very familiar, but worried, gray eyes. He squinted. "Stephen?"

Stephen's eyes went wide. "Hey. welcome to the world of the living, idiot." His tone quickly changed from the usual cheerfulness to a very aggravated tone. "Man, I can't freakin' believe you."

"Thanks," Terran grumbled as he rubbed the back of his head. He winced when he heard Stephen slam a fist into the wall. "Watch it, that hurts..." He bit his tongue from saying anything he might regret later on.  
Stephen just shook his head. "Are you stupid or something? I told you you shouldn't do this! You don't know what you're doing, Ter! Why..."

Terran snapped right back, shutting him out. "Fuck off, man." He ignored the pain as he pushed himself up more. "You're not my dad even if you may have the same DNA. You don't know. The Goblin's a psycho, Stephen, and he went too far." Out of pure adrenaline, he stood up and grabbed his friend by the collar. "He fuckin' put my dad in the hospital, Stephen. Or did you forget that?" His deep brown eyes were filled with anger, but it slowly faded away. He couldn't keep that up, and fell against the wall. "No more. I don't want my life ruined anymore than it already has been."

Stephen paused before replying. Although Terran might not have heard it, he definitely thought he heard something outside, but ignored it. His brows furrowed as he stared at Terran. It wasn't really the fact that Terran had gone out. Yes, he was mad about that, but the fact that he could have lost a part of himself. It took him eighteen years to finally find his family, to finally find the part of him that was missing, and he didn't want to lose it. "Put it this way, Terran..." He waited for his friend's eyes to meet his. "Do you want to end up in the hospital just like Peter?"

Terran just kept on staring. He had no reply. Stephen was right. _He'll still pay,_ he thought to himself.

Stephen laughed solemnly. "Just what I thought."

Terran looked away and closed his eyes. "Just get me the hell home."

Stephen sighed in defeat as he put an arm around his friend, but not before picking up the two masks, though. He handed the more tattered one to Terran. "Put this on. I'm slinging back."

Terran didn't bother to argue, and slowly put the mask over his head. He was both wiped out physically and mentally and couldn't take anymore arguing.

After watching Terran put his mask on, Stephen donned his and started to walk out of the warehouse. This time not noticing the low rumble of an engine as he shot out a line of web and slung back into the city. 

* * *

It took him a little longer to get back to the warehouse than he thought after he forced himself not to go after the Goblin. But between the condition his glider was in after the double blast... well, the damage was bad enough that he wouldn't have been able to keep up with the Goblin anyway. And something about Terran, he decided to go back to the warehouse. There was something deep in his eyes about Terran and Peter, but something very slight.

As he neared the warehouse, he jumped off of the glider, and crept up to a broken window and listened. Although, there was only one thing that ultimately caught his attention.

"I don't want my life ruined anymore than it already has been." Terran.

"Put it this way, Terran. Do you want to end up in the hospital just like Peter?" Stephen.

His eyes went wide. "Peter's in the hospital?" He listened for anything else that might tell him anything else, but nothing else was said that was of any importance. He ran back to his glider, and as fast as he could, flew back into the city. 

* * *

Terran laid on his back in his bed staring at the ceiling of his bedroom. After the night before, that was about the only thing he could do. He never imagined the pain. No. He never imagined how the confrontation between he and the Goblin would really turn out. He was stupid to think he even had a chance. He closed his eyes and turned to his side. He felt even more stupid and ashamed after Stephen had brought him home. He should have known his mother would have found out, and kill him when she finally faced him. He got more than a mouthful that night, but he couldn't take the yelling anymore. Between the Goblin, Stephen, and than his mother. There was nothing t stop his already unbalanced emotions.

He groaned in remembering what happened when he got home. Out of everything he went through that night he thought it couldn't have gotten worse. "Mom..." he mumbled into his pillows. Everything was so clear in his mind, and he let it play over and over again. 

  
_Stephen walked him up to the door of the house and opened it. Just as he was about to walk in, Mary Jane had appeared from the kitchen, her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. It almost made Stephen want to step back, but he walked in anyway, Terran leaning on him, his head down. He never even got the chance to say anything when his mother lashed out. Between Peter going back out as Spider-Man and him ending up in the hospital, it was too much to see her son dressed in the costume she never wanted to see again and beat up almost as bad as her husband._

"Terran, how could you!? You should know how much I hated it when your father did it! You could've gotten yourself killed! Are you stupid...?" But before she could continue, she was quickly stopped. However, not in the way any of them expected. Stephen didn't even have a chance.

Terran had told himself that he would be able to handle anything his mom said to him. Hell, he knew he deserved whatever she said to him, but that last part was too much for him. He didn't know why, but something in him snapped, and the next thing he knew he held his mother by the collar of her shirt, off the ground, and against the wall. He said nothing, but sneered at her. In fact, there was nothing he could say, nothing he could think of to say. He just held her in the air and stared at her. She could never understand.

She just stared back with wide eyes in disbelief at what had happened. She choked out, "Ter... ran..."

He did nothing still.

Stephen on the other hand, after realizing the situation, ran over to his friend and tried to pry his fingers away from Mary Jane's neck. But stopped in mid-pry when Terran's body started to shake. Then he looked up at Mary Jane. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

All at once Terran finally realized what he had just done. As soon as he saw that tear his eyes went wide and his body began to shake. He let his mom go and just collapsed onto the floor, curling up into a ball.

Mary Jane sighed in grief and wrapped her arms around her son's body, whispering something into his ear as she rocked him back and forth. 

  
He couldn't remember much of anything else, except for some mumbled words between his mother and Stephen. He figured that happened as they brought him to his room, and then finally fell unconscious and went to sleep. Only to wake up the next morning feeling worse than after his fight with the Goblin.

He rolled onto his back, and stared up at the ceiling. "I guess this was how dad felt in the beginning." Was this the road he was going to take? Was he going to follow Peter's led? Was he going to be another super hero? Fight for justice? He lifted his arm from his side and stare at the strange white blotch on his wrist. Did he have a choice? Not really, no. The powers he had were not things he could keep secret from the rest of the world. One slip, one mistake could end it all. However, it was none of those things that made him decide. It was "the Goblin." He scowled at those words that came out of his mouth and sat up from his pillows, turning his body so his feet touched the floor. With a wince from the pain, he slowly stood and walked to the window. "Not until you're finally out of my life long with the rest of your blood will I stop."

He closed his eyes and turned around. Was this how his life was going to turn out? A mass of chaos? One thing was for sure, though. He wasn't going to sit back and watch. If there was one thing, other than the powers he obtained from his father, it was his brains -- even if he didn't use them often. He knew his father wouldn't want him to go out. Especially his mother. But he could care less what they thought now more than ever. The only way he was going to learn anything is if he found everything else out for himself. 

* * *

Chapter Six: Painful Reminder

* * *

Troll belongs to Tracy Fisher. 

* * *

This chapter was written and typed to the Evanescence cd, the Trapt cd, and the Chevelle cd. 

  



	6. Painful Reminder

Chapter Six  
Painful Reminder

* * *

The first place to come to Terran's mind was the basement. Sure, he had been down there plenty of times in his life. It wasn't as if his parents never let him down to the basement. That would have just been asking for attention and suspicion. No, they just didn't let him go to certain parts. Specifically the back corner that hadn't been touched in ages. It was just asking to be searched, and that was exactly where he was going to start.

He stood in front of all of the old boxes and toys that laid since what looked like from the beginning of time. It didn't even look like that corner of the room even existed. It was just a lump of... stuff. He made a disgusted face. No one had touched any of the junk in years. It was covered in dust, cobwebs, and other substances that he couldn't think the name of -- if they even had a name. "Nice," he mumbled to himself as he bent down to get a closer look, and started moving everything out of the way.

Several times -- if not more -- during the moving and sorting, he sneezed and wound up tying his bangs back and away from his face. Between the dust and his hair he didn't know which was worse. It wasn't like he would be heard by anyone. It was just plain annoying. Besides that, Peter was still in the hospital and Mary Jane had gone out. When he walked downstairs from his room and into the kitchen, expecting to see his mother, he saw an empty house and a note on the table explaining that she would be out all day and for him to stay home. That was fine by him. He would have rather of been alone anyway. Besides, he decided for himself that he wouldn't be going to school. Not only was he really not in the mood, he was in far too much pain. And hearing more lectures from Stephen wasn't the first thing on his 'things to do' list for the day. No, he'd rather much clean up a pile of junk in the base of his house to find what this whole mess he was in was about.

He coughed as he tossed something behind him that left a trail of dust in air. "Man, how much crap is down here?" He raised an eyebrow when he picked up one of his old toys from when he was much younger, and noticed several other, rather old looking, unrecognizable objects. "Better yet, why did they keep all of this crap. This should have been thrown out years ago," he added as an after thought.

It took him a little more than an hour to clean everything out and move it out of the way. And that was mostly because he had to stop to dust himself off, spit dust out of his mouth, and sneeze several dozen more times. In the end, what he wound up doing was straightening everything up so it would go in the trash or be neatly put back. _That's just scary_, he thought subconsciously to himself turning back to the corner.

After getting a good look at the now clean corner, he noticed that a large section of the wall was a separate piece and could be removed. With a sigh of determination, he walked forward and pulled the piece of wall out of place and moved it to the side. He looked into the space and his eyes instantly went wide. "Shit..."

Everything in the space was all Spider-Man. From old costumes, to cassettes, to videos. Every piece of documentation he could ever have imagined -- and more -- was there.

"This is going to take a long time," he sighed as he stuck his hand in and pulled out a binder. He could tell just by looking at it that it was one of the older ones. Flipping the top open, he glanced though the pages. It was mostly made up of newspaper clippings about Spider-Man or his enemies. Whether he was the good guy or not. A few caught his attention from their titles, but nothing in the articles themselves sparked his interest nor told him what he wanted. He shut it and gently tossed it to the side, sticking his hand back in and pulling out two more binders. Both held more newspaper clippings that were of no interest to him. The articles themselves were slowly becoming more informative on who was who, but they still didn't tell him what he wanted.

The next thing he pulled out was a video tape. He looked at the side to see what it was about, ut because of the thick layer of dust, he was unable to tell what it said. He tried to blow the dust away, but it didn't help much and he wiped his fingers over it. The dust came off, but instead of being wiped away, it stuck to his fingers and he made a face. "Yup, that's nice," he mumbled, wiping his dust covered fingers on to the floor. After making sure his fingers were clean, or as dust free as he could get them, he looked back to the video. His face fell. More junk that wouldn't tell him anything. "Gees, they kept everything and anything." He tossed the video over his shoulder and sighed. It finally hit him that anything closest to him would be of no help, and actually stuck his body in waist deep -- plus flashlight -- into the crawl space and looked over everything.

His fingers scrolled over the titles on the binds of binders and videos, reading them off to himself. "The Vulture... Kraven... Doc Ock... Kingpin... Hmmm..." His hand hovered over the last binder, but he changed his mind and kept on going. "The Chameleon... Morbius... Electro... The Punisher." _Shit, how many are there_, he thought to himself shaking his head in disbelief. Instead of going on he just slowly shined the flashlight over what was to come. If it wasn't for the dust his jaw would have dropped. Instead, he moved slightly to his left to look at what was next. He made a mental note to go back and take out some of the binders he had just past over. Right now he wanted to find what he was really looking for, but something caught his attention that almost made him forget entirely. His eyes went wide. "Professor Miles Warren: Clones." Without any bit of hesitation he grabbed the binder, ready to back out when he saw a smaller notebook fall out. He picked it up and shined the light on it. "Ben... Reilly..." He couldn't believe it. This was the man who was the clone of his father. The man he never knew of until just a few days before, along with a secret his best friend kept from him. And inside that notebook was possibly all the information he needed or more so wanted to know about him. He stared at the name for several more seconds until he placed it back in the binder and backed out into the main basement.

He quickly flipped the cover open and hastily turned the pages, taking in every bit of information that his eyes saw clearly. There was so much information about cloning, even back logs from the Professor himself. Well, more so pictures of his notes, but close enough. He thought he saw something about one other clone before Ben, but dismissed it and closed the binder. Putting it and the notebook to his far left so he wouldn't put it back whenever he was done.

Grabbing a hold into his flashlight, he dived back into the crawl space and continued his search. He mumbled something incoherent under his breath that sounded strangely like other identities as he breezed past each binder title. He was tempted to take out a few other binders, but decided better of it. "You can't freakin' tell me they're not here," he commented, aggravated. "Everything else, but this."

He cursed when a clump of dust floated into his mouth and quickly spit it out, aggravating all the loose dust around him, blinding him. "Shit!" He back up as quick as he could, but wound up hitting the back of his head on the top of the crawl space wall. "Fuck, just what I needed." He rubbed the back of his head as he winced from the pain. "As if it couldn't get worse," he cursed under his breath as he was just about to back out of the hole when his knee hit something, making him instantly fall forward. He cursed several more times, using words that would make milk curdle, when he suddenly stopped. His hand landed on something that was definitely _not_ a binder not video tape not paper of any kind. It was most definitely fabric of some kind. He curled his fingers around it, and slowly back out, being careful not to hit his head again. When finally in open space, fresh air, and light, he looked down to see a gray and black costume. His eyes looked from cloth to hole, and went right back into the crawl space. Had he found what he had been looking for?

He flashed the light over the back when his hand had landed before and saw several other boxes and costumes -- although those were covered in some kind of plastic seal. In a rushed search he looked at all of the binders that were closest to the costumes. _No... no... no... Where is it_, he thought in rushed anxiety. _No... no..._ "Uh?" He stopped the light on a stray binder in the back. "The Green Goblin?" What was that doing back there? He hesitatingly picked it up to see what he had been looking for that entire time. He swiftly picked it up, moved back into the basement, and stared down at the bind. "Ricochet, Dusk, Prodigy, and The Hornet." He was happy with this finding, but knew it was only half of what he was looking for. 

Terran sat at his father's study's desk once again, only this time there were papers and binders strewn about in front of him. Along with the black and gray costume hanging up on the door behind him. There was something about the costume that pulled at him. Although what, he didn't know. What he did know was that it definitely had something to do with his dad's past, but it was also something he had to find out for himself rather than wait for someone to say anything to him. And he was getting rather sick of finding things out about people from someone else.

The binder that laid before him was the one labeled _Ricochet, Dusk, Prodigy, and The Hornet_. The other two binders, notebook, and a few other things he took from the basement laid about on either side of the desk. At the moment, these other super heros were on his mind. Peter had told him enough, and he knew enough, that he didn't really want to see news clippings or watch news recordings on Spider-Man. _Some other time_, he thought.

He flipped through several pages of written entirely on the Goblin framing Spider-Man, and then something about Spider-Man disappearing from the city, only to be replaced by four other heroes. There were four snap shots of the four costumes -- Peter in them. They were impressive Terran had thought, but even he saw they weren't right. He took a glance at the incomplete costume hanging on the door. It was the Ricochet costume. Pulling his eyes away and back to the binder, he flipped through the pages and read about each of the costumes' powers. He shuddered at the thought of Dusk, even though the cloak's power was awesome.

Although most of his attention was spent on the other identity binder, his eyes periodically glanced at the Green Goblin binder. There was something nudging him in the back of his mind. He hoped that it would just go away and he would skip over that one, but after going through most of the present documentation before him, he slammed it shut and grabbed he Green Goblin one. With slight hesitation, he finally opened it. The first things his eyes fell on was a name, and not just any name. It was a name well known by many people. Specifically that last name. "Osborn," he said the name as if it were poison on his tongue. He was a man hat ruined so many people's lives just to better his own. He deserved death more than anyone that came to Terran's mind.

Disgusted, he skipped over the first section and went straight to the next. And the next name he saw was Harry Osborn. A man he knew, though not well. _Wait_ Something hit him. There was something not right about that. At a second thought, he realized he knew close to nothing about the man except from what he heard from Slash, his son. His brows furrowed and he slowly flipped through the pages. His deep brown eyes scanned each page carefully. It almost disgusted him even more reading about the second Osborn. It made Slash look like an angel. "This Family is fucked up," he thought aloud, flipping through more pages.

Suddenly, through mid-flip, his eyes went wide. Did he read that right? He put the page he held back down and read the words written on the paper very carefully, and slowly. "Harry is dead? But that can't be right because of Slash." He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "This can't be right. I've seen him. He can't be..." He shook his head. There was defiantly something very wrong with this picture.

After several milliseconds of thought, he grabbed the binder and got up, ready to leave the room. Just as he was about to pen the door, though, he glanced at the costume. Without hesitation, he grabbed it and left. The only answers he was going to get were only going to come from one person: His father. 

* * *

Stephen sat in his usual seat in the back of the class, doing what he normally did: Nothing. He was bored out of his mind as he listened to the teacher drone on about something about American literature. The only difference from the room was the empty seat in the back next to him. Which made him even more zoned out than usual. He knew exactly why Terran hadn't gone to school, and gave him some slack. However, telling the teachers that his friend had mutant spider powers and fought against the Green Goblin wasn't the most believable excuse in the world. Highly unbelievable. Oh, by the way, he's also the son of the original Spider-Man. Stephen shook his head and sighed solemnly. He wasn't liking anything that was happening.

First the Green Goblin attacks Terran -- not once but twice -- he also finds out the truth -- although that wasn't really that bad of a thing. In fact, Stephen was rather glad about that . Especially after what he saw the night before. And to top everything off, Peter decides to go back out as Spider-Man, gets horribly wounded and winds up in the hospital. Terran wants revenge, only to get beat up and blown up, and get saved by him. Something Stephen never thought he'd be doing.

He rubbed the side of his head. It was all too much for him to handle. Even worse, considering it had all taken place in the span of a week -- if that long. He just really wanted the school day to end so he could get to the Parker house and have a talk with his friend. Even if it ended in ana argument. That's when he put his head down on the desk in defeat. Terran was a lost cause. Once the teen has made up his mind to do something, nothing could stop him or chance his mind. What a situation he had gotten himself into. 

* * *

The city streets were as busy as they normally were in the middle of the day. Cars moving and stopping seconds later from traffic. Venders busy with selling their food to the public. And shops busy with customers walking in and out. There was nothing out of place, except for the solo slinger in-between the buildings, web-slinging his way through the city and towards a hospital. The slinger kept himself far above the busy streets so not to be seen, and made sure not to stop for anything. He didn't want to be seen. Not yet, anyway. And at the moment he was rather enjoying himself. It was a rush he knew little of, and loved the feel of air against his body. It was magnificent.

He had the urge to yell out his joys, but thought better of it. Attention was the last thing he wanted. Along with being mistaken for another, certain well-known web-crawler from the past. It wasn't his time for that just yet. That, and a picture in a newspaper of a web slinging super hero back in the city would catch too many -- way too many -- people's attention. Most of which he didn't want. The Green Goblin was already on his tail, and he didn't really want anymore than that.

As he neared the hospital he decided to stop slinging, and flipped up onto a rough a few blocks away from the hospital. Not only to cease attention, but figured that he needed the practice of jumping and wall crawling. A good sneak "attack" was what was on his mind. He smiled at the thought, and joked, "He deserves it anyway."

In the far distance something was following. Not the Green Goblin, but someone very close. Although killing the teen wasn't on this persons mind. It was something else... 

  
Terran looked from the rooftop he stood on to the next one over, sizing up the jump. It wasn't that wide, or so he hoped. With a deep breath. he backed up and ran at full speed to the edge of the building. Taking a flying leap to what he hoped was not his death. He made sure not to look down and kept his eyes on the neighboring building. He couldn't believe the strength in his legs when he leapt. He could almost feel the muscles in his legs moving and working as he did. And when he started to land, he saw he was well into the middle of the rooftop of the targeted building. He did a swift flip and landed. He breathed hard, but only from the thrill of the jump, and not the jump itself. How could his father and mother have kept it from his knowledge for so long? No matter now because he knew and he wasn't going to pretend like he didn't. At the moment and because of certain events that had occurred the past few days, he couldn't. And his parents would have to just deal with it. These powers were apart of him now, and there was no turning back or taking them away.

He always knew he was different, but could never really imagine the full force of the truth behind those words. Although, he should have realized sooner after Stephen had suddenly showed up. A lone person who lives by himself and has no mother or father, and now that Terran knew the truth, he really did look like Peter. That, and the teen instantly went up to him his first day of school. Of all the cool kids and popular groups, this new kid chose _him_ to be friends with. He realized he should have saw it back then, but then again, it was nice to have a friend at last.

He shook his head and jumped to the next building, but because of his wandering thoughts, his foot slipped and he fell just bearly missing a window two stories down. He quickly grabbed a hold of the sill and jumped up onto the wall above, climbing his way back up to the roof. When he climbed over the edge he sat down and leaned his back against a small storage unit. He took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck. His body was still very sore from the night before, and he was starting to regret leaving the house. "What am I trying to do?" It was doubt, and that was the last thing he wanted nor needed to feel. Not when some psycho is after him and his family. At the moment, though, he just really wanted to go home and curl up in his bed. Forgetting everything that has happened the past few days.

Then a blood curdling cackle echoed through his head. The Goblin. The solemn expression on his face turned to one of pure hatred and disgust. There was no forgetting at what the Goblin had done to his father and to his life. It was now or never to stop it before someone really did die. That, and to find out the truth behind who the Goblin actually was. Norman was dead, and so was his son, Harry. Supposedly, anyway. He knew it couldn't have been Slash because of the way he talked about his father, and grandfather and their stupid grudge. Although, only to he and Stephen. That, and the way the Goblin had talked to him, the words that came out of his mouth. It sounded like a man who had been holding a grudge for decades. But who? Perhaps there was more missing from that binder on Harry Osborn's death that Peter kept out and kept to himself.

Pushing himself to his feet, he looked straight ahead and stared at the hospital. It would only be a matter of seconds before he would find out, or hopefully find out, more of the truth behind these Goblin attacks.

Taking another running start, he leapt into the rooftop and the one after that. Determination ran through his veins. These was no stopping him. He made the final leap onto the hospital roof and moved to the edge, looking down. He would have liked it to be a little higher so not to be noticed, but there was nothing he could do about it now, and started to climb down -- his face towards the ground. He counted down each time he passed a level until he crawled five stories down from the top. This time he counted from the side until he found the room he wanted. He crawled over as slowly as he could and peered in to make sure it _was_ the right room. He saw his father looking at something. He must have been thinking of something. He laughed to himself and then without any hesitation or warning, flipped himself into the room backwards. He turned around and faced a very wide eyed and surprised Peter. He smirked. "Hope you're feeling better, dad." 

* * *

Peter sat up in his bed reading through that day's _Daily Bugle_. He smiled, thinking to himself how great it was to be away from all of the ruckus of a normal day at the office. Although, how he got away wasn't what he planned. A nice vacation would have been much better than a hospital room. He shook his head. "Only to me," he thought a loud, putting the paper on the table beside the bed.

He was actually getting rather annoyed at having to stay in the hospital still. Staying cooped up wasn't his idea of rest and relaxation, or fun. He hated the smell of the place and wanted to leave. Considering that his wounds had already healed. There were just the remains of scars now, and he would be able to get over those. But the doctors insisted that he stay at least another day or so just in case. "In case of what." he sighed, rubbing his slightly sore shoulder. "I've gotten through worse." He thought back to his younger days and laughed. He was so foolish sometime back then. No practice with fighting crime and just went out thinking he could help the world with his newly found super powers. Although, the only thing it got him was either in more trouble, and no appreciation. "I guess it comes with the job subscription. Even the X-Men had their bad moments. I can't say I don't regret it fully, though." He smiled to himself, and went to pick the newspaper up again. When...

Something moved at the corner of the window. He looked up, but saw nothing. "My imagination. This place is killing my mind. I've got to..." But he was instantly interrupter by someone swiftly entering the room. From... the... window? He was just about to jump to his feet, when the intruder spoke.

"Hope you;re feeling better, dad."

He narrowed his eyes. The voice sounded very familiar. Too familiar, but it couldn't have been... No... But who else would have been wearing his old Ricochet costume? And where... What was this?

The intruder stepped closer, threw the book bag that was on his should to the ground, and took the mask off. Peter's jaw dropped to the floor and his eyes went wide. It was his son, Terran, who had a very sneaky look on his face.

"Terran, what the hell are you doing?" Peter couldn't even wait for his son to say anything, or even explain his actions because, at the moment, he wanted to kill him. Bed ridden or not.

Terran just shook his head. He knew this was going to happen, but he would let it get no further than that. "I didn't come by for..."

But Peter wasn't going to hear whatever he had to say. The Green Goblin being back was enough for him. "Oh no, Terran. This is no joke." HIs fists tightened around the bed sheets. "Where did you find that? I put it away years ago so no one could find it." But he didn't even have to wait for the answer on that question. He knew, and he mentally kicked himself for not burning that damn things. "I should've known."

Terran sat down in the chair next to the bed. "I would have found out sometime. Be happy it was now, and not later, or even before this." There was a tone of deep anger in his voice that he didn't, or couldn't, even bother to hide.

Peter shook his head. 'You've probably brought more attention to yourself than you know. What were you thinking? If you even were," he added in afterthought. "The Goblin is out there again, and looking for you. Prancing around like that makes you stick out like a sore thumb," he snapped back, shaking his head. Something told him that things were going to become much worse. "I don't know what..."

The teen quickly shook his head and stood back up on his feet. His already low tolerance level was shortening. He had enough of this kind of talk. Besides, that wasn't what he went down to the hospital for, which was what he spoke out. "I didn't come down here for more stupid lectures." He saw his father ready to talk again, but quickly kept on going without being interrupted again. "I got enough of that from Stephen and mom. And since you already realized where I have gone, there's no need to explain where I got these," he said as he picked up his bag, unzipped it, and tossed two of the binders out before Peter.

He father's eyes went wide at the sight of the old memories. It had been years since he had touched them. He closed his eyes when he saw the titles. The Green Goblin and his other identities. What were in those binders he wanted to forget so much. They were his past, and he didn't want to worry about that now. But with the attacks from the sudden appearance of the Green Goblin, or another Green Goblin, and his son standing before him in one of his old costumes. Forgetting was not going to be easy, nor was it ever going to happen.

He opened his eyes again and motioned for his son to sit back down. He sighed deeply and stared right into Terran's eyes. There was no getting around or lying about anything now. "All right, what is it you want to know?"

Terran stared dumbfound by his father's actions. Why now was he giving in? And his voice. It was so... cold. He mentally shook his head. _Take the advantage while you got it_. Without taking his eyes away, he grabbed the binder on the Green Goblin, automatically turned to the page on Harry Osborn, and pointed out where it said he had been dead for several years now. "This. How true is this?" He tried to sound as stern as he could, but with the stone like glare that Peter gave him it was very hard for him to keep himself from breaking and losing eye contact.

For a second longer Peter continued to look into his sons face, but turned his eyes away. He remembered when Harry died. It was hard for him, but much had been taken away. He looked back up, but turned to the window instead of Terran. "I saw him die." He didn't want to talk about it, not even to his won son.

But Terran wasn't happy with that answer. Far From. 'Then who is it? Who the _fuck_ is it who's attacking me?" He threw the binder down, stood up and stormed over to the window. That's not what he wanted. "He knows too much, dad, to be a new Goblin. When we fought..." He stopped. _That's right, he doesn't know, yet_, he thought, but continued. "When I fought him... the things that came out of his mouth. Those words." He turned around so Peter could get the full force of what he was about to say. "He called me _Spider-Man_. Not your son, not spider kid, or spider brat. _Spider-Man_. He thought I was _you_, _not_ your son. Who else could it be?" He slouched forward. When was this all going to end?

Peter's eyes went wide at that. How could it be possible? He watched Harry die. Right in front of his own eyes. The man had been dead for years. There was no way he could have come back. Even for the Osborns, death was final.

Terran began talking again, turning away so his father wouldn't be able to see the expression of pain and loss on his face. 'He said something else."

Peter looked to Terran. He didn't like this at all. "What? WHat did he say, Terran?"

Terran continues. "He said he wasn't the same as from the past." Without letting Peter even get a word in at that statement, he continued, almost in hysterics. "If it's not Harry, than who is it?" He leaned against the wall adjacent from his father's hospital bed.

Peter combed his fingers through his hair out of frustration. For once in his life he was totally clueless. "I have no idea, Terran. Which scares me more than anything else." All his life he always -- or more times than not -- had known something about what he was up against. But now? He felt helpless. Not only could he really not protect himself, but he couldn't protect either his son or his wife. However, Terran was a different matter entirely. When he looked back up, Terran had let, along with the binders and bag. His eyes went wide, and his body began to shake in fear. "Terran..." His hands curled into fists. His son was lost. "Not another one..." His eyes turned to the window. "Troll... please help him..." 

* * *

Chapter Seven: Slinger... Meet Spider

* * *

Troll belongs to Tracy Fisher. 

* * *

This chapter was written and typed to the _Spider-Man_ soundtrack, the Smile Empty Soul cd, and two mixed cds. 

  



	7. Slinger Meet Spider

Chapter Seven  
Slinger... Meet Spider

* * *

Two days had past since Terran had last talked to his father in the hospital, and he just left without saying goodbye. Hearing for himself that even Peter didn't even know, or even had a clue of the true identity of the Goblin was instantly told him there was more behind the sudden appearance and attacks. Staying in the hospital and chatting with his dad wasn't really going to tell him anymore that he wanted to know, and would just have been a waste of time. Not like he had much of that, either. In less than a week the Goblin attacks four times. It would only be a matter of time before he would attack again, and Terran wanted to be ready for it the next time the Goblin showed up. He already felt the power inside of him, and twice it already did it burst out of him. Even if with that second time he almost seriously hurt his mother.  
The thought made him twitch as he moved the gray and black fabric through his hands. He hadn't even seen his mother since that night, and he wasn't sure if it was because she was still mad at him for going out behind her back or because of his actions toward her. Was she purposely avoiding him? A second thought hit him. Not only had he not seen either of his parents, he hadn't even seen not talked to Stephen since that night. Which was very strange for Stephen considering the teen had never shut his mouth since the first time they met, nor did he leave Terran alone, even when told not go away He may have been a constant bother at times, but he still worried about him. He was like family... literally. "I hope _he_ didn't do anything stupid..." At second thought, "I doubt it. Maybe he thinks I'm still mad at him," he sigh with a smile. A very uneasy smile.

He threw all present thoughts out of his head and turned back to what he was presently doing. He was once again back in Peter's study, except this time he sat on the floor with fabric and pictures of -- oddly enough -- costume designs for a spider costume. Although, with a very Ricochet look tot hem all. He smiled. Good thing Mary Jane wasn't home or she would have killed him. He leaned back to look at his work and nodded. It looked almost exactly like his dad's Ricochet costume, except for the exploding spider web on the chest, the red with webbed forearms, knee to foot black on the legs, and full headed mask that was all black with an eye catching, red spider on the face -- he didn't like the feel of his hair flopping around his head. To top it all off, behind him, hanging on a hanger on the back of the door, was a plain, black leather jacket. "I knew that jacket would come in handy," he thought aloud as he stood up, taking the costume with him, slinging it over his shoulder. "Just to put it all together." He opened the jacket and slung the limp body suit over the middle of the hanger sticking the mask into one of the jacket pockets. Just as he was about to pick it all up to bring into his room, he heard the front door open, and someone call out his name. It was Mary Jane.

His eyes went wide, and he turned on his heels. "Shit." The floor to the study was a mess. If she came up stairs and opened the door she would see everything, and instantly know what he was up to. He only knew one thing to do. In less time then it took for his mother to close the door, he immediately opened the study's door, left the room, closed that door and jumped to his room. Crawling along the door to his room, he turned the doorknob, pushed it open, and flipped to his bed. The door slamming shut behind him. _I hope she doesn't look into dad's study,_ he prayed 

* * *

Mary Jane closed the trunk to her car and walked up to the front door. Since that night with Terran, she had spent little to not time at the house. What he did scared her more than him leaving behind her back. Not even Peter could move that fast, even in his younger years, not had that much strength. Her neck still ached. Even his eyes changed. Those pools of deep brown looked as thought they should have belonged to another person, not _her_ son. Not the son she gave birth to and raised. Just like... "No. That thing is not my son, and never will be apart of this family," she uttered, a deep tone of hatred in her voice. Even for someone she had never actually met, she held so much contempt for him, and truly and deeply hated him. She put the key in the door and turned it. "I don't understand how Peter could have ever thought that that thing was ever our child." In a small fit of rage from the thought, she threw the door open.

Expecting to see someone in the house, or at least a few lights on, she was met by darkness which worried her slightly. "Terran?!"  
No answer.

He had to have been home, considering the sun had already begun to set. And he definitely wouldn't have still been in school, if he even went. She put that thought aside for later so when they finally got to talk she would mention that. She wouldn't let what Peter did back in high school happen to her son. There was enough of that in her family. Maybe he was sleeping. Then she heard a door close up stairs. "Terran?" She put her bag down at the bottom of the steps and slowly made her way up to the second level of the house. A couple drops of sweat slid down her temple. Maybe it was a burglar. She wished she had a weapon of some kind with her, or even close at hand.

At the top of the steps she hesitantly looked around the corner. Both the doors to Peter's study and to her son's room were closed. Perhaps he was there. Ever since Peter went into the hospital her son had spent quite a bit of his time in that room.

She didn't notice as she stepped closer to the study's door that the door to Terran's room opened just enough so a certain set of brown eyes could watch -- from the ceiling.

_No, not the study_. He panicked and dropped down to his feet, throwing the door open, scaring his mom half to death and making her jump several feet back.

Her hand went straight to her chest as she caught her breath and calmed the racing beating of her heart. "Don't' do that again," she yelled out in a very rough and tired voice.

Terran turned his face away and rubbed his arm in an embarrassed sort of way. "Sorry," he whispered out, bearly audible.

She gave him a look of suspicion, and let her guard down. Wait, why did she have one up to begin with? It was only her son. She mentally slapped herself. Did that night scare her that much that she would have to put a guard up every time she came face to face with her son? She shook her head and looked at Terran. For a second she thought he was hiding something from her, but changed her mind. "Do you feel any better?" she asked, breaking the silence and changing the subject.

That caught Terran by surprise. "What?... I mean, yeah, I feel fine." He didn't really want to talk even though he hadn't seen her since he almost choked her to death. He really just wanted to get back to the costume.

She walked up to him and put her hand under his chin, gently pulling his face forward so she could look into his face. For a second their eyes caught each other's and she could swear she saw something. Was there something he wasn't telling her? Hiding from her? "Terran...?"

He quickly pulled his face out of her hand and stepped back. "I fine, ok?" he snapped coldly. That hurt her and he saw it when her face dropped. "Look, you know I've had a bad week... I just want to be left alone. all right?" He felt odd as she just stared at him. What did she want?

"Have you gone back to school, yet?" she asked suddenly before the tears started to stream down her face.

_What?_ That was an odd and very random question. "I... I'll go back on Monday." Which was exactly what he had planned to do whether he talked to his mom or not.

She seemed satisfied with that and started to relax some. "Good." Just as she was about to go back downstairs, she remembered something. "Oh," she added quickly. "your father's coming back home tomorrow. Please be home because he told me today that he wanted to talk to you about something." She gave him a very odd motherly like look that asked if there was something he didn't tell her, but got nothing.

Terran combed his fingers through his hair when she told him. He dismissed the look. He knew exactly why Peter wanted to talk to him, but was definitely not going to tell her anything. "Ok." And he turned around, shutting the door behind him, leaving Mary Jane to stare into space.

Her brows furrowed. "Is there something in the Parker DNA that doesn't permit the males to tell the truth?" Shaking her head, she forced herself to leave her son be. She didn't want a repeat of that night. 

  
Terran listened carefully from behind his door as his mother finally went back downstairs. He waited several more seconds before opening and peering around the door to make sure she was gone. He went straight back into Peter's study, locking the door behind him. For once she wouldn't get in his way. He surveyed the mess on the floor and quickly cleaned it up, putting the sketches deep inside the closet for safe keeping until he came back. Making sure the room looked the same as when he entered he turned toward the costume, and took a deep breath. "Now or never," he mumbled to himself for encouragement. Taking a step forward, he took the costume down from it's resting place.

A few minutes later he stared at himself in a mirror and inspected the completed work. It would take some time to wear the leather out so he could move more smoothly in it, though. He looked up and down again. Something was missing. He moved his upper body about to loosen the stiffness of the never worn leather jacket. It gave him enough freedom, but there was a tugging sensation in the back. He removed the jacket and looked at the back of it to see an extra strip of leather. Shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, as if the piece was of no importance, he ripped it off with ease. JUst as he was about to throw it away, though, he got an idea. With a bit of fixing and pulling, he put it around his right thigh. "Perfect." With a smile, he put the jacket back on and donned the mask.

It was finally time to test out what he could really do and with determination, walked to the window and opened it. But just as he grabbed the top of the window and web slung onto the building across the street, he stopped and looked back. What would his mother think? He knew she never wanted him doing it, but at the moment he had no choice. He shook his head solemnly at the thought. "Sorry, mom." And he took off into the city. 

* * *

Stephen sat up in his bed staring at the ceiling not paying much attention to anything that went on around him. Not that there _was_ something going on. The sun had almost disappeared behind the buildings of the city, leaving his unlit apartment rather dark and ominous looking. Normally, the teen would have been getting ready to go out to a party or a club, but something else was on his mind. Specifically the night of the fight between Terran and the Goblin. It had been three days since he last talked or even saw his friend. He didn't even bother to go down the day afterwards to see him. In fact, he thought better of it and decided that it might have been better to wait until Terran had gone back to school. And since it was the weekend already, he hoped Terran would go back that coming Monday.

He rolled onto his side and glanced out the window. "Man, I can't believe I have nothing to do. I'm definitely going to pound Terran... for... this...?" As he stared out the window, he could swear he saw something fly across the moon. Better yet, web-slinging. As he squinted to see if he could see better. The silhouette took on a very suspicious shape of a web-slinging human being. He jerked up and slung himself at the window. "You've got to be shittin' me." He rubbed his eyes and looked again. In the light of the moon he could just make out the form of a person slinging further into the city. "Oh. Fuck!" Frantically he torn into his closet and grabbed for the soul hanger in the back, and pulled it out. His spider costume. "I'm going to kill him..." Throwing off his own clothes, he quickly put on the costume, linked the web shooters around his wrists, and without any hesitation, jumped out the window and followed the other web-slinging teen. 

* * *

Terran was practicing some moves after about a half hour of slinging and climbing. Surprisingly, absolutely nothing was going on in the very busy city he lived in. He kicked an air vent, denting several strips of metal in the process out of frustration. "How the hell could nothing be going on? This is fuckin' New York City! Are you trying to tell me something?!" he yelled out up into the sky half expecting an answer of some kind, but nothing came. He sighed and was just about to go home when his spider-sense went off.

He immediately stopped in mid-step. His ears went up and his eyes darted to the right. All of a sudden there was an ear piercing scream echoing through the night air. Swiftly turning back around on his heels, he took a running leap off of the building he was on and dived straight toward the ground. Several feet before he made contact with the ground, he let a web line out and flung himself up and around the side of the wall. He let go and landed on the side of another building, in the shadows. He heard another scream from someone protesting against another person. He turned his head around the corner and saw two struggling people -- one more so than the other. Squinting to see better, he saw a man holding on tightly to a young woman. Her eyes filled with fear.

He scowled at the scene taking place before his eyes. He was disgusted, and instantly took action. As quietly as he could, he jumped to the ground and slowly snuck up on the two. Sure he would catch both by surprise, but that was the plan. Well, the first plan that came to him, anyway. He leaned against a nearby dumpster -- making sure to stay hidden in the shadows -- and cleared his throat.

The man immediately stopped what he was doing and looked around -- his hands still holding tight onto the girl. "Who the fuck is there?" HIs deep, rough voice echoed through the empty alley way.

No answer.

He took another glance around, but saw nothing. Or rather, he happened to miss the dark movement in the shadows by a dumpster behind him. Satisfied, he looked back at his captive. "You've made a bad mistake coming out here by yourself... at night," he barked coldly, holding the girl's face to him as his grip on the back of her head tightened, making her scream out in pain.

Terran decided then to make his move, and stepped forward, still making sure to stay hidden in the shadows. "Shouldn't I say that to you?"

That made the man jump fifty feet in the air, dropping the stunned girl. Now he knew someone was there. "Who the fuck is there?" he yelled out again, eyes darting around the dark alley.

Terran saw his chance, or rather the girl's chance, anyway, to run away. He tried his best to stay calm and not laugh at how stupid the thug was. He laughed. "I'll let you guess where I am while that girl runs."

"What?!" The man turned to see the young girl limping as fast as she could to get away. He sneered, "You prick!"

"Now now. Isn't that a bit harsh?" Terran jumped onto the wall and crawled up and around to get on the other side of the man. "Don't you think you could be spending your night a little differently? Watching tv or reading comics? I could recommend a few." He was rather enjoying himself now.

The man continued to look around, twitching every time he heard something move. He was getting nervous and slowly backed up.

Terran saw it and shot out a quick handful of webbing just behind the young thug's left foot that moved back right into the sticky substance. "Don't try to run, now. I think you have something to learn from this." Remembering the scene between the man and young woman disgusted him even more so than before, and he knew nothing would be done about it unless he did something.

The man yelled out in surprise when he found he couldn't move. "Shit! What is this?" He panicked now.

Terran laughed at the look of horror on the man's face. "Good," he said softly. Menacing, but soft. He had him right where he wanted him. In one swift move he jumped from the wall, flipped and landed softly behind the man, just bearly make a noise as he landed. He made sure to confuse the man even more, though, by making it sound as of he landed somewhere in front of him.

The man continued to panic even more and tried even harder to free his trapped foot. "What the fuck do you want?"

"I think you already know that," Terran answered softly so not to give away where he actually was. Just let him think he was about to attack from the front.

The man's fear filled eyes continued to look around him, but still found no trace of anyone. Until...

Terran tapped the man on the shoulder, smiling. Although the smile couldn't be seen under the mask.

The thug's head snapped around to the side to stare into a black face with a giant red spider on its face, and a pair of menacing white eyes. He screamed in terror, but was quickly quieted.

"Hello." And he punched the guy square in the face. He heard the man's noise break, but didn't care. The thug fell to the ground by his feet, and he walked around the whimpering body before him.

"Funk yu," the man spat out -- blood.

"Tisk tisk." Terran bent down and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt. "I think you should be a tab more polite to the person who can kick the shit out of you, buddy."

"An who the funk anr yu?"

Terran was taken by surprise by that question. And a very good question it was indeed. He never did think of a name for himself. _Great way to handle yourself, Terran._ He mentally kicked himself realizing how stupid it was that he had yet answered the question. _Name, I need a name..._ THen it hit him. He remembered a snippet about a group of four teens who became Peter's four other identities. They called themselves _The Slingers_. He smirked. "Call me... Slinger." Was his reply. "Don't forget it." His grip tightened and he punched the thug again, dropping him to the ground this time with a thud. "And don't worry, you won't be a lone for long. The police will be here to join you." He knocked both wrists back, ready to web the guy. "And to make sure you stay put..." He let go and covered the thug's entire body -- except his head -- in webbing. Knowing his captive would never be able to break free out of the webbing, he turned and started to walk away, but not before adding sarcastically, "Have a great day." And zip-lined up the wall. 

  
After getting himself onto a roof several buildings away, he stretched his arms out and cracked his wrists. He still had to get used to the feeling of the webbing in his arms, and having to bend them back when he needed the sticky substance. "Well, that turned out better than I thought." He smiled. He actually accomplished something and was proud of himself.

"Do you think it'll always be that easy?"

Terran jumped. "What?" His spider-sense went off, but very lightly. He turned his head just enough to the side to make out the outline of someone's body in the shadows of a venting unit. "Who's there?"

"Your turn, eh?" the voice laughed.

He recognized that voice, but could it?

The shadow moved and out came a... Spider-Man? "Surprise, surprise, Ter. Or should I say, Slinger? Has a nice sound to it."

Terran could feel the smirk on the costumed teen's face. And the expression on his own face dropped. "Dumb ass."

Stephen's smile widened under the mask and he walked over to his friend. "No, I don't go by that anymore. You can just call me Spider. Has a better ring to it. Don't you think?"

Terran threw his arms into the air. "Can't I ever get away from you people?" He turned away. "Especially you. I'm still fuckin' pissed at you. How do you think you could just fuckin' show up and be all buddy buddy again?" Stephen showing up really just ended his good night.

Stephen raised an eyebrow. "Jee, I love you too, buddy." Then he added as an aside, "Like the costume."

"Whatever..."

Stephen shook his head. "Look, I saw you before from my apartment. What else would you be doing? Buying ice cream and renting sappy movies to deal with this shit? I don't think you're that kinda person." He paused and gave Terran a suspicious look. "I hope not, anyway." He waved his hand in front of his face as if moving the thought away and dismissing it. "Anyway, I didn't come out for laughs, Ter. I came out to find you."

Terran shook his head, and turned around, giving the coldest stare he could muster to his costumed friend. "And what did you think you would do? Scold me and make me go home? I don't think..." But he didn't get the chance to finish. His spider-sense went off, but he didn't react in time.

Without warning, Stephen punched him in the face. "More like knocking the sense into your fucking thick skull."

Terran put a hand to his cheek. He found no need to talk after that and attacked. First punching the teen back, missing, and then kneeing him in the side. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" he yelled out angrily as he hit and missed again, only to get punched hard in the chest.

"How long will it take?" Stephen asked, throwing another two solid punches to Terran's stomach and head.

But Terran was too busy blocking punches and punching back to reply. What was Stephen trying to prove? That he was stupid? Before he let the teen get another punch in, he jumped in the air and flipped over Stephen's head. In mid-flip, though, he knocked his wrists back. Two web-lines shot out of his wrists and stuck hard to Stephen's back. He sneered, and as he landed, pulled as hard as he could.

Stephen was taken by surprise by that move, but didn't have enough time to rip himself free. However, for the split second that he did try, the webbing didn't even budge from it's place on his back. Next thing he knew, he was forced back and landed hard on the ground, his head hitting cement with a loud crack. His hands went instantly to his head and when he opened his eyes all what he saw were stars. Not the attack from Terran.

Terran saw his chance when Stephen was paralyzed for those several crucial seconds. He didn't take notice, though, that his friend's head hit hard and almost knocked him out. All what he saw was a chance to give back what he got and lashed out without mercy. However, what he truly saw now in his eyes was the Green Goblin and _not_ his friend, Stephen. All what he wanted was revenge for what the monster did to his dad, _not_ for Stephen punching him in the face. He was in pure hysterics now and tears flowed from his eyes mixing with sweat, stinging his eyes and soaking his mask. "Damn you!" he cried out. "Damn you... for what you did to him!" He continued to punch the struggling teen in the face and stomach. "Fuck you! Why can't you just. Go. Away!"

He landed several more punched before he finally started to tire, and Stephen was able to block rather than continuing to be a punching bag for his friend. Although, by that time there was no need. He looked up at his angst ridden friend with sad eyes. He had no idea that what had happened to him and especially to his father had built up so much in him. He never saw it like that. Sure, he found out the truth about his father and about his best friend. Stephen was sure he would eventually get over that in time. But the Goblin, of course, was a different story. But he never saw it. Never saw how it truly affected Terran. How it made him so emotionally unstable. _No wonder he attacked his mom so bad,_ he thought solemnly.

Terran still didn't take notice that he was sitting on Stephen's stomach. Or rather, he didn't realize that it was Stephen at all. His heart beat a million beats per second and his breathing was horribly erratic. He lost all sense of time and space, and continued to mumble incoherently to himself.  
However, he may have been happy to sit there until the world get better for him, Stephen had other plans. He felt all sorry for his friend, but at the moment couldn't breath. Knowing the teen wasn't going to move on his own, with as much strength as he could gather, shoved Terran off of his stomach and inhaled a much needed in take of fresh air. Even if it tasted strangely like a mix of sweat and blood. After painfully forcing himself to sit up, he turned to Terran to see him slumped over crying. His body shaking terribly. "Terran?" he called out to him softly. Almost... brotherly.

Terran didn't hear his name. In fact, all what he could hear was the wretched cackling of the Goblin. Laughing at him for being such a failure, and that it was all his fault, and that he shouldn't have been born. Telling him he was a freak of nature and unwanted and unloved. Then suddenly, someone grabbed his shoulders and turned his body. He opened his eyes and looked up to see none other than the Green Goblin smiling at him. A very wicked smile. "No... no... get away from me!" He started to struggle against the Goblin's hold. "Get... get away from me!" He tried to hit him, but his arms wouldn't move. What was he going to do?

Stephen started to really worry now. "Terran, Terran. Wake up, dude. It's only me, your buddy. It's Stephen," he pleaded. What was happening?

But Terran continued to struggle against his hold.

"Terran!" he yelled out, shaking the teen even harder. Suddenly, he ripped off his mask realizing it was not only restricting his air supply, but also jumbling the sound of his own voice. "Terran, it's Stephen." There, he sounded better and more like himself. Even if parts of his face and body were sore, cut up, and caked with blood. "No one else is here. Just you and me. Calm down, buddy." But no such thing would happen.

Terran tried more than ever to get away. "No... leave me alone," he began to plead to the Goblin, the tears still flowing down his face. "You've tortured my family enough. You've killed my dad already. What more do you want?

Stephen's heart stopped at those last words, and stared wide eye at his friend. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. He was speechless. _This is how far it's gotten into him._

Although he said nothing, Terran saw and heard something entirely different. The Goblin's grin widened and he laughed. "Hardly, spider-brat. I want your blood and your body mounted on my wall."

"No." He shook his head. "No... NO!"

CRACK!

Stephen slapped him across the face. He had to stop the torture before he totally lost him. "Wake. The. Fuck. Up!"

Terran's eyes went wide, but all what he saw was blurs, and then felt something get ripped off his head -- the mask, he still had it on. He blinked several times before he could see clearly. And what he saw surprised him. It was a very beat up and bloody looking Stephen. He tried to find his voice, but all what he could say, and just bearly, was, "Ste... phen?"

The beat up teen smiled. He finally had his friend back.

Next thing Terran knew was having the taste of bile in the back of his throat and he threw up. Just missing Stephen, who would have hit him over the head if it wasn't for what had just happened only seconds before.

When he had finally emptied his stomach, he looked back up and over at the clone, and said softly and weakly, "Thanks..."

Stephen let out a loud laugh, but winced slightly from the bruises. "Anytime, man."

"Sorry about... that," he apologized, motioning weakly to his face.

"I'm the one who should apologize, Ter." The tone of his voice changed drastically from before and he became very serious. "I never knew all this shit effected you so much. I should have just let you deal." He stared right into Terran's eyes. "It wasn't my place."

Terran smiled softly at the teen's apology. He almost hurt him to see Stephen so hurt. So instead of making the moment even worse, he said, "Now you sound like my dad."

Stephen raised as eyebrow. "Shut up."

The two broke out into laughter and laughed for several minutes before Terran snapped the moment into silence.

"Stephen?"

"What?"

"You know I won't stop and I'll go after the Goblin again." He turned his head and stared straight into his friend's eyes. "And nothing's going to stop me."

Stephen sighed in defeat. "I know..." 

* * *

Chapter Eight: The Spider vs. The Goblin -- Take Two

* * *

This chapter was written and typed to the Revis cd, a mixed cd, and the All American Rejects cd. 

  



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